Evolution "Preferences" Crashes

[Frank Jahnke]

I've been testing the VirtualBox port, and I have had repeated crashes
loading the kernel module.  One side effect of that is that I can no
longer reach the "Preferences" menu within Evolution.  It crashes with
the error message 

        GConf:ERROR:gconf-client.c:1202:gconf_client_key_is_writable:
        assertion failed: (entry != NULL)

This sounds like a simple GConf fix, but I have no idea where the key is
located.  Alternatively, there is often a .something file that can be
deleted that restored things to proper working order.  If there is, what
is that file?

Otherwise, evo seems to work fine, though it does drop the saved
passwords to log in to my mail host.  System is i386 7-STABLE, Gnome
2.26.1.

Advice would be most appreciated.  If further info is needed, I can
recompile with debugging flags.

Frank