Some additional information gathered from scouring the bug list:
Running 'gdomap -L GDNCServer' yields: Found GDNCServer on '127.0.0.1' on port 47747
I suppose that's the good news.
Running openapp Ink --GNU-Debug=NSMessagePort yields a VERY long list of errors summarized as:
2006-08-29 19:51:15.032 Ink[8496] _livePort: /tmp/GNUstepSecure1000/NSMessagePort/names/GDNCServer 2006-08-29 19:51:15.032 Ink[8496] not live, couldn't open file (No such file or directory) 2006-08-29 19:51:15.032 Ink[8496] not a live port 2006-08-29 19:51:15.032 Ink[8496] Exception occured while loading model: unable to contact GDNC server - please check that the gdnc process is running. I attempted to start it at '/usr/GNUstep/System/Tools/gdnc'
2006-08-29 19:51:15.032 Ink[8496] Failed to load Nib 2006-08-29 19:51:15.032 Ink[8496] Cannot load the main model file 'MainMenu' 2006-08-29 19:51:15.032 Ink[8496]
portForName: Ink host: (nil) 2006-08-29 19:51:15.033 Ink[8496] _livePort: /tmp/GNUstepSecure1000/NSMessagePort/names/Ink 2006-08-29 19:51:15.033 Ink[8496] not live, no such process (No such process) 2006-08-29 19:51:15.033 Ink[8496] not a live port 2006-08-29 19:51:15.033 Ink[8496] removePortForName: Ink 2006-08-29 19:51:15.033 Ink[8496] File NSMessagePort.m: 1330. In [NSMessagePort +_portWithName:listener:] Created listening port: <NSMessagePort 0x8a32cb0 with name /tmp/GNUstepSecure1000/NSMessagePort/ports/8496.0> 2006-08-29 19:51:15.033 Ink[8496] register <NSMessagePort 0x8a32cb0 with name /tmp/GNUstepSecure1000/NSMessagePort/ports/8496.0> as Ink 2006-08-29 19:51:15.033 Ink[8496] _livePort: /tmp/GNUstepSecure1000/NSMessagePort/names/Ink 2006-08-29 19:51:15.033 Ink[8496] not live, couldn't open file (No such file or directory)