GNOME "Settings Daemon" error
 

Background:
I recently turned my WinXP home computer into a dualboot with Gentoo Linux. Yay!

Problem:
The first time I logged in with GNOME, it was just fine, and I could use programs, emerge, use gaim to talk to my friends, learn linux-y stuff, etc. But then, I booted into Windows for awhile, and when I booted back into Linux later, there was a problem with GNOME.

Starting into GNOME is just fine, but after I try to login, I'm hounded with error messages. The first one is as follows:

There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon. Some things, such as themes, sounds, or backgrounds may not work correctly.

The Settings Daemon restarted too many times.

GNOME will still try to restart the Settings Daemon next time you log in.

Clicking OK gets rid of that error window, but these next two come back every time I say OK. They are as follows:

There was a problem registering the panel with the bonobo-activation server.

The error code is: 3

The panel will now exit.

and

Nautilus can't be used now, due to an unexpected error.

These windows never go away, and the whole thing just doesn't respond. I can't click or right-click or double-click on anything. The background is a solid colour.

Now, I'm a Linux newbie, so if you're going to explain something, explain it step by step and don't be afraid to offend me. But DON'T tell me to use KDE because you think it's better. That's evasion, not solution.

With all that said, PLEASE HELP!

what happens if you press ctrl-alt-backspace? If it gets you to a command prompt type startx and see what happens.

Of course it gets me to a command prompt.. I'm not THAT new, I managed to install gentoo. :P

startx... what's it supposed to look like now? If it just starts gnome again, that doesn't work. If it starts x, then I have no idea why I'd do that...

I asked about ctrl-alt-backspace because in SuSE 9 it just restarts KDE rather than a command prompt didn' tknow if your distro did the same or not. startx will startx w/ the default window manager...i just figured you could try it and see if it works....if you want a GUI while you fix it you can run the command

xinit

then run the command to start KDE or blackbox or w/e so you can fix your problem easier if you want...