request info re upgrading gnome

["Darcy Kahle" <darcykahle sympatico ca>]

I have a WhiteBox Enterprise Linux 3 system with the original gnome installed via rpm.  (whitebox uses the redhat source rpms as it's base).  As Redhat's Enterprise Linux 3 is getting old, it is looking highly unlikely that they (or anyone else) will produce rpms of the latest Gnome for that system, and I would like to upgrade it.  Therefore, it looks like I will be building gnome from source, and I would like some help answering some questions for that task:

 

1. What is the recommended method of upgrading an rpm based gnome installation from the source tarballs?

2. Do I need to upgrade XFree86 first?

3. Is there a howto somewhere that might help me with this task?  I have looked, but found nothing.

4. Are there any potential sinkholes or problem areas that I need to keep my eyes out for?

 

I appreciate any help that you might provide me.  Since I also have the kde libraries installed, I will likely be upgrading kde from source as well, and the info that I gleam from this would likely help me with that task as well.

 

Thanks,

Darcy