GTK, MDK, and XFCE

[Andrew]

> quite a bit, actually.  scratch my "long shot" modifier - it's almost 
> certainly a gtk engine install issue, or a theme install issue.  is this 
> a fresh install of mandrake with a user with a fresh homedir?

no.

>   if not, 
> maybe try creating a new user and staring up X (try both xfce4 and 
> gnome2, i guess).  if the problem persists, at least that way we can 
> eliminate the possibility that there's a weird config file in your 
> homedir that's causing the problem.

Once again, good idea.  Trying gnome, then xfce with user 'test'
worked.  Now, since this is a config problem, how shall I proceed?