Gnome: Black Desktop and Icons missing

[Samuel <expires200404 debain org>]

Hello,

After upgrading from Gnome 2.0 to Gnome 2.2 (Debian Sarge) there's kind
of strange behavior:

After starting up, I have a black desktop background only, and all the
Icons except for the "Home" icon are missing (also in the menu). Also,
while Gnome is starting, the mouse speeds up *a lot*, it's almost
impossible to use it any more.

Trying to start any configuration tools, I get the following
errormessage: "The default theme schemas could not be found on your
system.  This means that you probably don't have metacity installed, or
that your gconf is configured incorrectly."

I have tried to "apt-get --purge remove" gnome, metacity and gconf, and
reinstalled everything. But the problem still persists. I have just
upgraded to Gnome 2.4, but all to no avail, so I guess it must be a
configuration problem.

I have already tried to create a complete new user (with an empty
homedir) but that didn't help either. It happens also if I start Gnome
as root.

Any hints?

Thanks,
-Samuel