Now I get popup error messages: How to fix?

[Paul Johnson <pauljohn ukans edu>]

>From the Gnome menu, I can launch settings| controlcenter.  No problem.  

However, I cannot start the "capplets" in the next lower level of the
Gnome menu, such as the windowmanager configuration tool or the
background tool.  I've had this problem on this machine for a while. 
Now I have it with the newest RPMS from ftp.gurulabs.com.

In the new Gnome I get popup error panels, so at least the system knows
there is something wrong.

Here is the message in the first popup.
"Application 'gnomecc' (proces 17664) has crashed due to a fatal error.
(Segmentation fault). Please visit the GNOME Application Crash page for
more information".

And after a few moments, this appears:
"gnomecc --sm-client-id 1181ed3d470000093680010900000000929220017.  
No response to the SaveYourself command. The program may be slow,
stopped, or broken.
You may wait for it to respond or remove it."

I'm not sure if I should make a bug report because I can't explain why
the problem happens on this particular machine.  It does not happen on
the 3 other RedHat linux boxes I administer!  There is probably some old
library or header sitting around, as the crash page states, I just don't
know how to find it.

I am able to start many of the capplets from the command line with the
command
$gnomecc --capplet=capplet_name

WIth that, I can start gnome-edit-properties-capplet and the
screensaver-properties-capplet.  The screensaver one does run, but it
does also cause this error message:
$ gnomecc --capplet=screensaver-properties-capplet
xscreensaver-command: xscreensaver window has been deleted.
Gtk-WARNING **: invalid cast from `GtkAdjustment' to `GtkWidget'

Curiously, the capplet for the windowmanager configuration does not work
from the command line. The command
$ gnomecc --capplet=wm-properties-capplet

does not produce any error messages, but it does not start the WM config
thingie either, it just opens the control center.

Oh, one other thing.  I've got a tail running on the output from the X
session.  sometimes I see error messages spew out in there, but when I
try to launch capplets over and over again, there is no fresh output in
there.

Can you say what is wrong?

-- 
Paul E. Johnson                       email: pauljohn@ukans.edu
Dept. of Political Science            http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~pauljohn
University of Kansas                  Office: (785) 864-9086
Lawrence, Kansas 66045                FAX: (785) 864-5700