Comment 4 for bug 534061

'gconf backend' just means, that AWN is using gconf to store the settings, which, it looks like it is, as there are values in the %gconf.xml file.

Which, I think I have found the problem. In the %gconf.xml file there is value that is messed up somehow, so the fix for you is easy.. the hard part is to find out how this incorrect value ended up in the config at all..

The line that says "<stringvalue><GdkColor at 0x94664d0>|0.5</stringvalue>" is bad.. to fix it, perform these steps;

Press ALT+F2 to open the Run Dialog, and type 'gconf-editor' and press enter.
In the gconf-editor, navigate to /apps/awn-applet-bandwidth-monitor/ and in there should be key 'background_color', double click on it and change it to "#000000000000|0.5", then click OK, and you can close gconf-editor.

After that, it should load normally.. I will don't know how or why that value got set to what it is now, but I will do some testing and try to re-produce it..