%general-entities; ]> $LastChangedBy: bdubbs $ $Date: 2012-05-12 18:30:32 -0400 (Sat, 12 May 2012) $ Set an environment variable to resolve the prefix destination. If GNOME is your desktop of choice: cat > /etc/profile.d/gnome.sh << "EOF" && export GNOME_PREFIX=/usr export GNOME_SYSCONFDIR=&gnome-etc-dir; export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=${GNOME_SYSCONFDIR}/xdg export XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/share:/usr/local/share EOF . /etc/profile.d/gnome.sh If you want to try-out GNOME, or install it in an easy-to-remove location: You may wish to create a symbolic link to the actual versioned directory using a non-versioned name. This has the advantage of an easier path to type in all the changes below and also makes it easy to point to a different/newer version of GNOME without changing all the edits below. If you wish to use a non-versioned name in the changes below, issue the following commands as the root user: install -v -m755 -d /opt/gnome-&gnome-version;&gnome-minor-version; && ln -v -s gnome-&gnome-version;&gnome-minor-version; /opt/gnome If you created the symbolic link, change all instances of /opt/gnome-&gnome-version;&gnome-minor-version; to /opt/gnome in the instructions below. export GNOME_PREFIX=/opt/gnome-&gnome-version;&gnome-minor-version; The try-out group will also need to make all the following configuration changes: Add to your system or personal profile: export PATH=${PATH}:/opt/gnome-&gnome-version;&gnome-minor-version;/bin export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=${PKG_CONFIG_PATH}:/opt/gnome-&gnome-version;&gnome-minor-version;/lib/pkgconfig export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=${PKG_CONFIG_PATH}:/opt/gnome-&gnome-version;&gnome-minor-version;/share/pkgconfig export GNOME_LIBCONFIG_PATH=/usr/lib:/opt/gnome-&gnome-version;&gnome-minor-version;/lib export PYTHONPATH=${PYTHONPATH}:/usr/lib/python&python2-majorver;/site-packages:/opt/gnome-&gnome-version;/lib/python&python2-majorver;/site-packages Add to your /etc/ld.so.conf: cat >> /etc/ld.so.conf << "EOF" # Begin gnome addition to /etc/ld.so.conf /opt/gnome-&gnome-version;&gnome-minor-version;/lib # End gnome addition EOF Add to your /etc/man_db.conf: cat >> /etc/man_db.conf << "EOF" # Begin gnome addition to man_db.conf MANDATORY_MANPATH /opt/gnome-&gnome-version;&gnome-minor-version;/share/man # End gnome addition to man_db.conf EOF Remember to execute ldconfig as the root user after installation of libraries to update the linker's library cache.