Icons on desktop don't appear

["John F. Kohler" <jkohler2 earthlink net>]

Hello,

I am using the version of GNOME that came with Red Hat 7.2 and installed

my system as a "GNOME workstation."

Somehow, during a re-boot of my stystem, and after entering "startx" on
my commandline, I got what I thought was a normal startup of Xwindows
and GNOME.

It was not.

I got the taskbar across the bottom of the screen, (footprint,
questionmark, tool\box, etc)
but no icons on the left edge of the desktop, where there normally
appears a trash can
several red hat icons and a few others.

Otherwise my system is normal.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

John Kohler
Daly City, CA