Roadranger,

I had this exact problem when I tried to load up nethack. What fixed it for me was a recommendation in the comments at

http://n770galaxy.blogspot.com/2006/...74943401311209

They recommended removing the .nethackdir from your user directory. Then when you rerun nethack it will recreate it. I suspect this has to do with permissions being set incorrectly by the installer.

You'll need to install xterm, which is fairly easy. This goes without saying, but be VERY careful when using the command: rm -rf .nethackdir

If you type it exactly, you won't have a problem.