the saga continues...

[x7]

 |OK, this suggestion about the DISPLAY variable worked fine (it required the
 |localhost:0 option. thanks Dieter!). Now PD starts up and I get a new error
 |message: Audio I/O stuck and then it shuts down, usually leaving a window in
 |gnome which must be "annihilated". Starting with the -nosound option seems to
 |make no difference. Still doesn't work, although PD seems to make it much
 |farther through the initialization routine now. Audio and midi both work under
 |x-windows with other programs. Is this something to do with the frag option?

you either have soundcrd which needs frag/fragsize option set
or somethings wrong with your /dev/dsp* entries a la dsp0 instead dsp
oder no permissions .. 
$ chmod a+rw /dev/dsp?

?

from here to there its not long enough but from here to here its too short.
[cpt.bh]