Failed to load source

[Jon Forsberg <zzed cyberdude com>]

Hi,
I get 

Oct 18 17:48:12 kvantus gconfd (test-7304): starting (version 1.0.6), pid 7304 user 'test'
Oct 18 17:48:12 kvantus gconfd (test-7304): Failed to load source `xml:readonly:/usr/local/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory': Failed: Could not make directory `/usr/local/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory': Permission denied
Oct 18 17:48:12 kvantus gconfd (test-7304): Failed to load source `xml:readonly:/usr/local/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults': Failed:  Could not make directory `/usr/local/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults': Permission denied
Oct 18 17:48:12 kvantus gconfd (test-7304): Unable to open saved state file '/home/test/.gconfd/saved_state': No such file or directory

in my syslog when I try to use gconf (or rather programs that uses gconf)
and, for example, Galeon refuses to start.
I have removed /usr/local/etc/gconf completely and installed GConf 1.0.6 from
scratch but problem persist.
/usr/local/etc/gconf looks like this:

total 6
drwxr-xr-x    6 root     root         1024 Oct 18 17:31 .
drwxr-xr-x   17 root     root         1024 Oct 18 17:31 ..
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         1024 Oct 18 17:31 1
drwxr-xr-x    4 root     root         1024 Oct 18 17:38 gconf.xml.defaults
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         1024 Oct 18 17:31 gconf.xml.mandatory
drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         1024 Oct 18 17:38 schemas

I have (all installed from source):
GConf 1.0.6
gnome-libs 1.2.13
GTK 1.2.10
GLIB 1.2.10
OAF 0.6.5
libxml 1.8.16
libxml2 2.4.6

Please CC,
--zzed