How to change icon layout on the Desktop?

[GizmoPlushie]

Since I installed Knoppix 6.2 on my HDD drive, my icons are being set always horizontally. Is it a way to position them the other way like: by mouse?

Every time I try to drag them into new place one by one, they are stuck in one place.

My laptop is antique and unique:
Compaq Armada 500Mhz with 512MB ram and 40GB HDD

The HDD looks fine, so the distro too.

help

[GizmoPlushie]

Since I've been using Knoppix 6.2, my icons seem to be stuck vertically. I'm new user - newbie to be exact - so all I know is I'm probably the root, knoppix, but root

Anyway,

I'd like to check 2 things if that will ever help:
1) my privileges via console
2) set privileges to root for knoppix user (that's me off course
3) think about any other solution that might help me

Any ideas warmly welcomed .')