GS server dies in SuSE Linux OSS 10.0

[Roger Price]

I upgraded a PC to SuSE Linux OSS 10.0.  I then installed Erlang R10B-7 
and tried to start GS, but the GS server died immediately:

Erlang (BEAM) emulator version 5.4.9 [source] [hipe]
Eshell V5.4.9  (abort with ^G)
1> S = gs:start() .
{error,backend_died}

Roger