Unable to run anything (including log out)

["Gareth Clay" <i4 freeuk com>]

I have a very strange problem - I don't know whether gnome is the cause or
not, but it certainly affects gnome.

After I log in as a user (not root) and startx, everything seems to work fine.
Then if I run pppd (which I allow non-root users to use my using chmod +s), I
can't run any other application after that. I can't even use log off on the
gnome menu. I *can* double click on the "home directory" icon to bring up file
manager, but trying to run "shutdown -r now" from the Run command option in
file manager has no effect.

I would *love* some help on this, because once this happens I can only get out
of linux by using a hard reset.

I'm using Red Hat 6, Enlightenment 0.15.5, Gnome-core 1.0.5 and Gnome-libs
1.0.10

Thanks,
Gareth