help please, with mime

[lizard <lizard 6401pppa18 mpls uswest net>]

can anyone help or direct me to help. The problem is getting mime types
working on gnome desktop and gmc, etc. Mime types and associated
application work just fine as root, but as any other user on the system,
they do not work at all (click on a .xpm or .html and it run the processor
for a sec, and then does nothing). What needs to be done to get this to
work for non-root users. If this is not the right list please tell me
where I could try. Thanks a lot.
-jeremy