[sllug-members]: Gtk/Gnome apps wont start or segfault

[Marc Christensen]

Hey everyone,

I have a real weird problem.  At home I run openSuSE 10.3 x86_64 with
all available updates applied.  The hardware is an AMD X2 dual core,
64bit processor w/ 4GB ram, mirrored SATA HDs running LVM.

A couple weeks ago, the machine locked up and I had to reboot.  When I
rebooted, I couldn't log into gnome with a message that my session
lasted less than 10 seconds.  Additional information says that
sabayon-apply segfaults but not more than that.  I have to log into the
machine using KDE.  All KDE and command line applications work while
GTK/Gnome apps segfault or hang.  For example, gedit segfaults
immediately but if I open Gimp or firefox, they run but both will lock
up if I use a File Open dialog.

I was wondering if there were any files that are corrupted so I did

     rpm -Va

No files owned by RPMs are corrupt!  No binaries or libraries have
MD5sums that have changed!

I have been trying to debug this for nearly a week now.  No clues, and
I've had no luck googling for an answer (maybe I just don't know what to
look for.  An strace says that when opening a File Open dialog, apps
that hang are in the middle of some gettimeofday calls.

I think it may be something with gconf or some other configuration
corruption or setting.  The issue affects all users: root, my own
account and any new accounts I create, so it's a global problem, not a
local config issue.

Does anyone have an idea what could be going on or how to fix this?

--
Marc