It sounds as if it could be the good old LANG problem - reading between the lines of what you said.
Try doing:
Code:setenv LANG C
if you're a csh user, or:
Code:export LANG=C
if you're a sh, ksh, or bash user.
Do this in the shell before you start DFII (e.g. icms).
One of the symptoms of LANG being set to something unusual (and this is rather more common on Linux) is that you can't select from any list boxes - or rather, DFII ignores your selections.
Regards,
Andrew.