OS 11 changed settings will not apply - update problems

I am new to open suse so I am sorry if this has already been addressed. I downloaded os 11 last week and installed it on my computer. everything seems to boot up and run fine, but nothing I change is saved for even a minute. I first tried to set the clock to update automatically. I pressed apply and closed the window. I went back in and it was unchecked. The update manager is also acting up. It came up saying there was an update for the update manager, so I installed it. Then it tells me that there are 33 updates available, so I click to install, type in admin password, the update icon flickers in the toolbar, and then a balloon pops up saying once more that I have 33 updates available. When I turn on compiz effects they dont stay on after restart. lastly, kdevelop will not compile my c programs with error: configure:error: ls -t appears to fail, make sure you dont have a broken alias. so I check and find "alias ls=‘ls $LS_OPTIONS’ so I get rid of it and close the terminal and i get the same error. go back in the terminal to find out that the alias reapplied itself. Any Help would be greatly appreciated.

isonator04

Are you using KDE4?? I have a similar problem - not quite as immediate. If I change the menu or add items to desktop the change is not applied unless I log out and back in. OK with KDE3. Have reported as a bug but I gather that as the new version KDE4.1 is coming out that it will not be addressed in the 4.0 version.

Even with this problem I have grown to like the KDE4 look and feel and have stayed with - desktop now settled to how I want.

Sorry not much help… I did think that I had a permissions problem - you could check .kde4

Sorry I forgot to post that I was using KDE 3.5.9.
I was able to change my alias for ls in the /etc/bash.bashrc.local file, but Kdevelop is still giving me the configure:error. The update manager and date/time auto adjust still arent working either, but getting my programs to compile in kdevelop is my primary concern. is there a similar .kde3 file I should look into?