FC! denying prompts in gnome-terminals

[Beartooth]

I had installed FC1 on one of my desktop pentium2s, and then on my wife's
desktop athlon, got yum pointing at the Tech mirror, updated, and
everything swam. Both installs were from the DVD in Ball& Hoyt -- the full
thing, *all* of FC1, according to the book.
                                                                        
Yesterday I finally installed FC1 on my other desktop p2 -- from the CDs
that came with Petreley's book, since that box lacks a DVD drive. I did
eventually get yum pointing at the Tech mirror and working, but only on
about the third try from root's login. Would you believe it took all that
and a few reboots -- just to get a prompt?
                                                                        
Even then, only root got a prompt, and only by signing on from a fresh
reboot.

My user (btth) terminals never did. And still haven't. I left the machine
running, after telling each Gnome terminal either to reset or to reset and
clear, all night.
                                                                        
There are still no prompts. I've tried all the suggestions I found for
recovering a terminal after ssh (even though ssh is not involved): ~. and
~& and others, with and without extra strokes to <enter> before and after.
Nary a prompt.
                                                                        
I've hunted through the gnome terminal help, too. It says the gnome
terminal responds to standard escape sequences -- but doesn't list them
...  Alltheweb gives me lots about escape sequences, and even some about
customizing the prompt -- if you have one; but it doesn't seem to envisage
being stuck behind a blank terminal.
                                                                        
I've experimented with editing the profile, and with various combinations
of <escape>, tilde, <enter>, and other keys; but haven't hit on the magic.
Any ideas??


-- 
Beartooth Implacable, curmudgeonly codger learning linux
Life is hunting, hunting life -- all ye know on earth,
and all ye need to know.