It is important that you compile and install the GNOME packages in the proper orders. There are some serious dependencies within the GNOME tree. Here is my suggested order, you should compile and install each package before you move onto the next. On ELF-based systems (such as GNU/Linux and FreeBSD), you should also run ldconfig after each package, just to be sure any new libraries are found.
| glib |
| gtk+ |
| imlib |
| orbit |
| gtk-doc |
| libgtop |
| gtk-engines |
| gnome-libs |
| gnome-core |
| control-center |
| gnome-print |
| mc |
| gnome-guile |
| gnome-python |
| gnome-objc |
| gtk-- |
| anything else, as needed, in whatever order |