balsa won't launch browser

[Jack <ostroffjh surfree com>]

I just upgraded to balsa 2.0.13 (same problem with 2.0.10) compiled 
from tarball on a LFS system (2.4.19 kernel) running gnome2.  When I 
click any url in a message body (the URL displays correctly in the 
status line) nothing happens.  Balsa just freezes, and I can only kill 
it with a ^C from the launching terminal.  (I currently launch from 
command line, not a gnome launcher.)  I've tried various setting in the 
gnome control center, and have also created gnome-moz-remote in both .
gnome and .gnome2 (as suggested in the faq).  I don't have gdb 
installed, so I can't even attempt a stacktrace right now.  Am I 
missing something obvious?  I'm using Mozilla 1.4, in /usr/local/
mozilla/mozilla.

Thanks for any hints.