THanks for the help on the gamma situation. edited the XF86Config fileAppeara to be the same stuff I see when I'm kogged in as client. It's obviously telling me I can't open the stuff. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
and now have a nice brightened screen.
Now my next question. Made a link to a file on my desktop, but it has a pencil inside a red circle w/line. Is there a way to remove this? It's not an emblem, I checked that. Any takers? :)
