Gdk-ERROR with gnucash under xfce4

[Bruce Miller]

I get the following error when attempting to run gnucash
under xfce4, fedora core 3:

=> gnucash
Gdk-ERROR **: BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
  serial 340 error_code 8 request_code 148 minor_code 3

Any idea what this means?
Presumably this is a bug in gnucash, rather than xfce,
although gnucash does run under gnome, 
... I'm really just fishing for any idea where this sort of
error comes from, to find a workaround or prod the gnucash
folks with.

[there's a similar bug report, but "unconfirmed"
  http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=163053 ]

Thanks in advance
bruce