panel werks only as root--crashes as user

[Markus <roid sad baynet de>]

hi all i just installled the rpms of gnome 0.27/0.28 on my redhat 5.1
system and i can only start the gnome panel as root it crashes when
starting as user with the error:
multi applet running, contacting [/usr/bin/gen_util_applet]
***Warning** Forcefully removing connection 0x80ca260 from poll list
********************************************0x807af10***************
***ERror** sigpipe caught

****Warning** Attempt to remove connection 0x80ca260 - not an active list

****Error** sigsev caught

please help