Description of problem:

With 20080130 changes for rawhide applied gnome-volume-control
does not work anymore.  The first time on a session startup one
gets an alert:

"Volume Control" has quit unexpectedly
If you reload a panel object, it will automatically be added back to the panel.

After that there is not even an alert and a volume control on a panel
is no longer there.

Attempts to start it from a terminal window produce messages:

(gnome-volume-control:4423): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: specified class size for
type `GstOssMixerTrack' is smaller than the parent type's `GstMixerTrack' class size

(gnome-volume-control:4423): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion
`initialization_value != 0' failed

(gnome-volume-control:4423): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_new: assertion
`G_TYPE_IS_OBJECT (object_type)' failed

and a return with a status 1.

In ~/.xsession-errors one can find

ALSA lib control.c:909:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL front:0
ALSA lib control.c:909:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL front:0

and these are only messages which would look possibly relevant.

There are new complaints from pulseaudio in /var/log/messages but
pulseaudio was last time updated six days ago.  Running strace
on gnome-volume-control does not make me any wiser here.  I am
afraid that I do not see any obvious candidates in the last
series up updates for taking a blame for this breakage.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
gnome-media-2.20.1-7.fc9

Additional info:
This is on x86_64 machine if of any relevance here.

console-kit and pulseadio were _not_ in the latest set of updates
but now complain as follows:

console-kit-daemon[2205]: WARNING: Unable to open directory
/etc/ConsoleKit/run-session.d: Error opening directory
'/etc/ConsoleKit/run-session.d': No such file or directory
console-kit-daemon[2205]: WARNING: Unable to open directory
/usr/lib64/ConsoleKit/run-session.d: Error opening directory
'/usr/lib64/ConsoleKit/run-session.d': No such file or directory
console-kit-daemon[2205]: WARNING: Cannot create file
/var/run/ConsoleKit/database~: No such file or directory
console-kit-daemon[2205]: WARNING: Cannot unlink /var/run/ConsoleKit/database:
No such file or directory
console-kit-daemon[2205]: WARNING: Unable to open directory
/etc/ConsoleKit/run-session.d: Error opening directory
'/etc/ConsoleKit/run-session.d': No such file or directory
console-kit-daemon[2205]: WARNING: Unable to open directory
/usr/lib64/ConsoleKit/run-session.d: Error opening directory
'/usr/lib64/ConsoleKit/run-session.d': No such file or directory
console-kit-daemon[2205]: WARNING: Cannot create file
/var/run/ConsoleKit/database~: No such file or directory
console-kit-daemon[2205]: WARNING: Cannot unlink /var/run/ConsoleKit/database:
No such file or directory
pulseaudio[4234]: polkit.c: PolicyKit responded with 'auth_admin_keep_always'
pulseaudio[4234]: main.c: Called SUID root and real-time/high-priority
scheduling was requested in the configuration. However, we lack the necessary
priviliges:
pulseaudio[4234]: main.c: We are not in group 'pulse-rt' and PolicyKit refuse to
grant us priviliges. Dropping SUID again.
pulseaudio[4234]: main.c: For enabling real-time scheduling please acquire the
appropriate PolicyKit priviliges, or become a member of 'pulse-rt', or increase
the RLIMIT_NICE/RLIMIT_RTPRIO resource limits for this user.
pulseaudio[4234]: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_NICE, (31, 31)) failed: Operation not
permitted
pulseaudio[4234]: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_RTPRIO, (9, 9)) failed: Operation not
permitted

The last two lines were showing up for a while but that was about it.