First Gnome launch hangs

[Hans-Detlev Fink <hdf pecos de>]

Hi all,

I think this was mentioned before, but ...

When starting gnome without having a .gnome dir
residing in my home dir gnome-session hangs in
a very early stage. It displays the splash screen,
after clicking on it the hints come up, then nothing.
The only gnome related process running then is
gnome-session. Files created by then are

.gnome
.gnome/Gnome
.gnome/accels
.gnome/hint
.esd_auth
.gnome_private/(empty)

Only output to xterm when started from xterm is
SESSION_MANAGER=local/hdf:/tmp/.ICE-unix/813

When I create a .gnome and copy a valid (ie used)
session file from another user into it then gnome
starts up like a charme. Seems gnome-session has
a problem creating the session file. Once running
there are no further problems.

It does not depend on the user, ie whether a normal
user or root.

System: Redhat 6.1 with all the latest updates, latest
gnome packages locally recompiled from srpms.

I'm not sure when this began (not adding new users
every day) but I'm sure that it did not occur with
gnome 1.0 and the first 1.2 releases.

Any ideas? TIA

-Hans-