gnome 2.12 problems

["F. Heitkamp" <heitkamp ameritech net>]

I've built gnome 2.12 from sources basically following the Linux from 
Scratch directions.

Most of Gnome 2.12 applications and so forth seem to work, however I can 
only get the generic icons on the desktop and in nautilus.  When I type 
"gnome-theme-manager" I get "The default schemas could not be found on 
your system."  I have checked for the schemas and gconf and AFAICT they 
are all right.  I have poked around in the source code and documentation a 
little and can not see anything obviously wrong with the way I have gnome 
setup.  I have also checked my XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable and it 
seems right too.  I have deleted all gnome related configuration files in 
my home directory that I know of, and tried running Gnome as both root 
user and myself.  If I type "gnome-control-center"  I get either 
"application has quit unexpectedly" or a window with the title "Desktop 
Preferences" but it is blank.  I am at my wits end as to where to look. 
I am trying running some of the programs through gdb looking for a clue. 
Any suggestions other than "use ubunto, or ..<someones favorite distro> 
would be appreciated.

I have gnome installed in /usr/local/gnome212.  I used gcc 4.0.2, and 
linux kernel 2.6.13.2.

Fred