Gnome 2.8 Settings not saved across sessions

Hi,

I am setting up Linux workstations running Gnome 2.8 on Gentoo Linux
(kernel 2.4.26-gentoo-r9). Home directories are NFS mounted on an SGI
Origin 200 server running Irix 6.5.25m. Account information is shared
via NIS.

The users can login fine, and tweak their Gnome settings (background
image, fonts, themes, etc.), but these settings are not saved accross
sessions, i.e. their preferences are reset when they login again.

I have been Googling for quite a while now, and have found this thread
(http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gconf-list/2004-July/msg00017.html)
describing similar problems, but no solution so far.

I have checked the NFS settings to make sure NFS locks are enabled,
and I think they are enabled on both the server and the clients (no
complaints in the logs, rps.statd and rpc.lockd daemons running)

I've set up a Linux box to act as an NFS server for one dummy user,
and the problem disappears. I logged a call to SGI and didn't get any
answer so far.

I've tried with other Linux distros as well, and I am experiencing the
exact same behaviour with Fedora Core 3, although it *does* work with
a Redhat 9.

I really am running out of ideas on this problem (except maybe change
the Origin 200 to a Linux server ;-) ), has anyone experienced the
same problem ?

Any clue greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
--
Frederic Servant
la maison (www.alamaison.fr)