I was experiencing this problem after a fresh Ubuntu 10.10 installation, installing updates and restarting the computer did not have any effect on the problem. The problem was easily fixed thanks to Apteryx's solution:
# chown -R josh /home/josh/.gconf -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/269215 Title: There is a problem with the configuration server. (/usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconf-sanity-check-2 exited with status 256) -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
