Comment 19 for bug 164804

Here is what I did to finally get rid of this error with the updated version of Ubuntu 7.10:
1. Open a terminal window by Ctrl-Alt-F2
2. At the prompt type "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop" without the quotes
3. On the next line type "sudo aptitude reinstall gnome-applets" without the quotes
4. If you get an error message you will need to also type "sudo dpkg --configure -a"
Don't switch back to the original Gnome window until all the operations complete