help! broken gconf

[Mathew Yeates <mathew comma jpl nasa gov>]

Sheesh, if gconf has a problem.. EVERYTHING breaks!

I'm trying to run galeon which requires gnome 1. My machine crashed and ever
since then, I can't start the app.

I get
** WARNING **: GConf error:
No database available to save your configuration:
Unable to store a value at key '/apps/galeon/gconf_test'


I've tried everything. I've removed /tmp/orbit-mathew. I've kill 
gconfd-1 and
all oaf processes.

Here is what happens when I try gconftool-1
gconftool-1 --get /apps/galeon/Handlers/Downloading/download_dir
~

gconftool-1 --set /apps/galeon/Handlers/Downloading/download_dir "~" 
--type string
Error setting value: No database available

Help!
What do I do??

Mathew