Annoying problems

[Matt]

I'm a brand new user to Linux (escaped from Big Brother Bill), and there 
are a few pretty minor things I have been having trouble with.

The first is that every time I start my computer, the keyboard setting 
comes up in German. I can't count how many times I've tried to fix this. 
I change it easy enough once I log in to KDE, but it never stays from 
session to session.

The second is that my binary files won't execute. I've been trying to 
download Java Runtime Environment 1.3.1 and a java based P2P application 
called Limewire. Both are binaries, but they never execute.

I'm using SuSE Personal 7.3.