gnome woes?

[jeff sacksteder <jeffs local com>]

Not sure if this is the correct forum for this, so if not, could someone
direct me to where I might find an answer? 


All of the various parts of GNOME work for me with the exception of the
background-properties widget. When run, cpu usage spikes to 100% and the
program never returns. I'm using RH 5.1 and GNOME .30 Strace reveals to
following(this is the end):

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

kill(797, SIGTERM)                      = 0
wait4(797, [WIFEXITED(s) && WEXITSTATUS(s) == 1], 0, NULL) = 797
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffbd0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb48) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb5c) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb54) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb4c) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb64) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb54) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb48) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb88) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb7c) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb70) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb84) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb74) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
stat("/home/jeffs/.gnome/Desktop", 0xbffffb84) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
brk(0x8095000)                          = 0x8095000
write(3, "\201\2\2\0\10\0\200\2-\0\20\0\t\0"..., 80) = -1 EPIPE (Broken pipe)
--- SIGPIPE (Broken pipe) ---
write(1, "Gdk", 3Gdk)                      = 3
write(1, "-", 1-)                        = 1
write(1, "Message: ", 9Message: )                = 9
write(1, "\n** ERROR **: sigpipe caught", 28
** ERROR **: sigpipe caught) = 28
write(1, "\n", 1
)                       = 1
Gdk-Message: 
** ERROR **: sigterm caught

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is apparently an error in GTK?