hi,
I am new user of Limewire.
I also could do search using Limewire and I don't know whether it connected to Gnutella network or not from its interface.

My os is Debian 2.6.8-3-686
Java version 1.5.0_01

what I do:
I checkout the source code following the instruction in limewire website.
build it, limewire/core$ ant compile-ant
limewire/gui/$ ant compile-ant
run it, limewire/gui/$./run

following dialogs, do some configuration, I found that the software will make some directories. It also will generate some files under ~/.limewire

Then I input the word for search, it will give me remainder: "Limewire is currently connecting to the network. Your search may not return many results until you are fully connected to the network." I clicked "OK", and waite for a while, it still could not give me any search result.

I want to see what actually happened, and chaged log4j.properties under gui like this:
log4j.rootLogger=ALL, stdout, TextFile, XMLFile, socket to open all the log infor.

and I post some log information at here:

0 DEBUG [main] gui.Initializer.<init> - START Initializer, using: 2140008 memory
37 DEBUG [main] gui.Initializer.resetAndLog - Preinstall: 16ms
57 DEBUG [main] gui.Initializer.resetAndLog - ErrorHandler install: 20ms
78 DEBUG [main] gui.Initializer.resetAndLog - MessageHandler install: 21ms
80 DEBUG [main] gui.Initializer.resetAndLog - DefaultErrorCatcher install: 2ms
3119 DEBUG [HttpClient-IdleConnectionThread] httpclient.MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager.run - Sleeping for: 30000
3434 ERROR [main] simpp.SimppManager.<init> - IOX reading simpp xml on disk
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /home/u2/lilu/.limewire/simpp.xml (No such file or directory)
at java.io.RandomAccessFile.open(Native Method)
at java.io.RandomAccessFile.<init>(RandomAccessFile.j ava:212)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.simpp.SimppManager.<init>(S imppManager.java:77)
......................
3481 INFO [main] tigertree.TigerTreeCache.<init> - didn't load new caches
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /automount/u2/lilu/.limewire/ttroot.cache (No such file or directory)
at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.jav a:106)
................
3505 ERROR [main] tigertree.TigerTreeCache.createMap - Can't read tiger trees
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /automount/u2/lilu/.limewire/ttree.cache (No such file or directory)
at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.jav a:106)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.tigertree.TigerTreeCache.cr eateMap(TigerTreeCache.java:246)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.tigertree.TigerTreeCache.<i nit>(TigerTreeCache.java:222)
........................
3864 WARN [NIODispatcher] nio.NIODispatcher.process - IOX processing
java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused
at sun.nio.ch.SocketChannelImpl.checkConnect(Native Method)
at sun.nio.ch.SocketChannelImpl.finishConnect(SocketC hannelImpl.java:525)
at org.limewire.nio.NIODispatcher.processConnect(NIOD ispatcher.java:445)
at org.limewire.nio.NIODispatcher.process(NIODispatch er.java:774)
.........................
26878 WARN [AWT-EventQueue-0] themes.ThemeSettings.getOtherLF - Ignoring IOX
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /home/u2/lilu/.limewire/themes/other_theme/name.txt (No such file or directory)
at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.jav a:106)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.themes.ThemeSettings.ge tOtherLF(ThemeSettings.java:375)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.menu.ThemeMenu.addTheme Items(ThemeMenu.java:128)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.gui.menu.ThemeMenu.<init>(T hemeMenu.java:83)
....................................
29550 DEBUG [main] gnutella.LifecycleManagerImpl.doStart - START ContentManager
29571 ERROR [main] auth.ContentCache.deserialize - Can't read responses
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /home/u2/lilu/.limewire/responses.cache (No such file or directory)
at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.jav a:106)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.auth.ContentCache.deseriali ze(ContentCache.java:87)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.auth.ContentCache.initializ e(ContentCache.java:69)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.auth.ContentManager.start(C ontentManager.java:85)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.LifecycleManagerImpl.doStar t(LifecycleManagerImpl.java:328)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.LifecycleManagerImpl.start( LifecycleManagerImpl.java:301)
.............................
30187 DEBUG [main] gnutella.HostCatcher.read - entered HostCatcher.read(File)
30189 DEBUG [main] gnutella.HostCatcher.readHostsFile - /home/u2/lilu/.limewire/gnutella.net
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /home/u2/lilu/.limewire/gnutella.net (No such file or directory)
at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.jav a:106)
at java.io.FileReader.<init>(FileReader.java:55)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.HostCatcher.read(HostCatche r.java:508)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.HostCatcher.readHostsFile(H ostCatcher.java:1408)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.HostCatcher.recoverHosts(Ho stCatcher.java:1437)
...................................
30336 DEBUG [main] gnutella.LifecycleManagerImpl.doStart - START DownloadManager.postGuiInit
30355 ERROR [main] gnutella.DownloadManagerImpl.readSnapshot - Unable to read download file
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /automount/u2/lilu/LimeWire/Incomplete/downloads.dat (No such file or directory)
at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.jav a:106)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.DownloadManagerImpl.readSna pshot(DownloadManagerImpl.java:612)
at com.limegroup.gnutella.DownloadManagerImpl.readAnd InitializeSnapshot(DownloadManagerImpl.java:572)
...........................
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: /automount/u2/lilu/LimeWire/Incomplete/downloads.dat (No such file or directory)
at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.jav a:106)
........................


I don't know whether I miss so many files. Those files are important? If I lack them, I couldn't connect to the gnutella network.
I even don't have gnutella.net under ~/.limewire.....................

Someone could help me? Thanks