GNOME shutdown problem

[Aidan Gauland]

Hello,

 This problem started recently: the GNOME panel and the shutdown dialog 
freezes (but, oddly enough, not X) when I bring up the shutdown dialog, and 
press "Shutdown".  If I kill X, then the system shuts down.  I've tried 
logging out, removing GNOME's home config files and directories, and logging 
in again, but this doesn't solve make the problem go away.  I have NO IDEA 
what started this.

 Any ideas?

Thanks,
Aidan