workspace switcher doesn't save

I recently did an upgrade install from RH 7.3 to 8.0 and I have an odd 
problem I've never had in any previous version. The "worspace switcher" 
applet does not remember that I want more than one workspace. I keep 
setting it to 4, and after I log out (saying to save current setup) and 
log back in again, I'm back to one workspace. Oddly, it _does_ remember 
the number of rows. I have checked all the packages that seem to have 
anything to do with Gconf and they all seem to be updated to the version 
that came with 8.0. I have checked my entire ~/.gconf tree and none of 
the %gconf.xml files contain the string num_workspaces (I got that from 
Brett in the redhat.config newsgroup who said that it is working for him 
-- he does have a %gconf.xml file with this:

 <gconf><entry name="num_workspaces" mtime="1034047427" muser="brett"
type="int" value="6"/></gconf>

I created a new empty home directory for one of my user accounts just in 
case it was a problem with old dotfiles. That didn't help. This user has 
the same problem. I don't see any clue in /var/log/messages. If anyone 
has any suggestions for how to debug this problem, I would be grateful. 
I'm running out of ideas.

One other thing. I noticed in this list, some discussion of a WM called 
metacity. Brett, on redhat.config must have been running that since he 
had found the num_workspaces bit in
~/.gconf/apps/metacity/general/%gconf.xml.

I just now found metacity on the CD and installed the rpm. But I don't 
see any preference for switching to it. Is anyone who is running sawfish 
able to save the number of workspaces?
-- David