[Usability] Is it safe to delete things in .gconf? (Documentation question)

["Mark Knecht" <markknecht gmail com>]

Hi,
  Not sure this is the right list for this. The usability issue from
my point of view is whether the documentation tells me *anywhere* how
to try and fix this problem and what is safe, if anything, to delete
from the .gconf directory in a user's account.

  For the last few weeks my dad's machine has been having trouble
with Evolution. He starts Evolution and it immediately crashes running
Bug Buddy. Nothing in the Bug Buddy report is of any value as nothing
is compiled for debug. Here's what the crash looks like from a
terminal:

herb gandalf ~ $ evolution
CalDAV Eplugin starting up ...
** (evolution-2.8:12600): DEBUG: mailto URL command: evolution %s
** (evolution-2.8:12600): DEBUG: mailto URL program: evolution
inside eab_vcard_control_new

(evolution-2.8:12600): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_new:
assertion `width > 0' failed

(evolution-2.8:12600): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_get_pixels:
assertion `pixbuf != NULL' failed

(evolution-2.8:12600): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **:
gdk_pixbuf_get_rowstride: assertion `pixbuf != NULL' failed

** (bug-buddy:12632): WARNING **: Failed to connect to the FAM server: (null)

** (bug-buddy:12632): WARNING **: Couldn't load icon for Bonobo
Component Browser

** (bug-buddy:12632): WARNING **: Couldn't load icon for Open Folder
Failed to read a valid object file image from memory.
herb gandalf ~ $

  Now, if I run Evolution from my account it works fine, and
additionally it only prints the first 3 lines above, so I assume this
may be a problem with something in .gconf not being correct and
showing up with a crash inside the subroutine eab_vcard_control_new.
Anyone have a feeling for the validity of that idea?

  I did some Googling and found folks with other similar problems,
mostly with the panel, etc., who managed to fix their problems by
deleting directories down inside of .gconf. I'd like to try this on my
dad's machine but I cannot find any info on whether it's safe to do.
Is it?

  Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. If there is a
better list for this problem, and I'm sure there is, please advise and
I'll go there.

Cheers,
Mark