Don't know about the GNOME problem. I'll have to install and experiment a bit with GNOME to see what's going on.

I can help you with the font properties problem though. I had the same problem. Check out Font properties section of the Java release notes and download and install the revised font properties file:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/relnotes.html

Thanks!
Though as you predicted it didn't have any effect on the menu problem, and I also got a new warning in the terminal:

Warning: Cannot convert string "MetaCtrl<Key>Insert" to type VirtualBinding

It still runs fine from a terminal.

Hi,

inbetween I also found the 'naked' version 1.7c, tried and installed...with the same effect as mentioned above.
Without having seen the above comments, I just tweaked the startscrippt and added a
'cd $HOME/LimeWire'
to get it up and running

I think this is a problem with the Swing classes rather than with LimeWire. I notice this error sometimes as well. It appears to be harmless.

I've been trying all the methods in this thread to get a shortcut working.. but a lot are hard to follow.. can anyone give me a summary?

What you do: tweak your startscript:

#!/bin/sh
#
# Runs LimeWire. This script must be executed in your LimeWire
# install directory.
#
# We must set the J2SE_PREEMPTCLOSE environment variable to 1 to
# work around some limitations in the JDK1.3. For more information
# see http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/relnotes.html#vm
#
J2SE_PREEMPTCLOSE=1; export J2SE_PREEMPTCLOSE
cd $HOME/LimeWire
java -classpath . RunLime

---then go to the desktop,
Right mouse on the desktop -> create new -> Program
-> Enter program name, choose application (runlime.sh)
..thats it.

Now I can't get the new 1.8 to run from the GNOME menu either. :-P

...but 1.8 (with installer) is fine in KDE...no tweaking

Cheers