Performed a "routine" yum update last week, which installed a new kernel (to 2.6.9-1.6_FC2) and loaded a number of X fonts, etc. Now I cannot boot Gnome.

When I enter "startx" at the command line, I get the Fedora splash screen, but it blows up loading Gnome and gives the following message:

error while loading shared libraries: /usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1
undefined symbol: FT_Get_BDF_Property

I checked, and libfontconfig.so.1 is present, and is symbolically linked to libfontconfig.so.1.0.4, also in /usr/lib.

I can start an xterm, and can also start a non-desktop X session. But, when trying to start Gnome (or KDE for that matter), I get the same message.

Does anyone have any ideas as I'm pulling my hair out and hope I don't have to reinstall to see if that rectifies the problem (but would rather not right now...)

Ideas are greatly appreciated...

"and loaded a number of X fonts, etc"

It might be worth looking at this set of changes, and reverting them.

GNOME and KDE rely on fontconfig working, but xterm doesn't know what fontconfig is, so it sounds to me like you have correctly pegged it as a fontconfig/font issue.