Synaptic and Terminal not working

[mtguy]

Just installed Xubuntu 11.10 and had everything working and looking the way I like it, then after a reboot, both synaptic and the terminal app (the native xfce terminal) failed to work. They both open when selected from the menu, but neither are operational. The terminal app doesn't display my bash prompt and synaptic fails to load any software information. After a reboot, both worked again, then today upon starting the computer, both are failing to work again. I can install software via tilda (which works flawlessly) and through ubuntu software center, however synaptic appears to be broken. Clicking on search crashes it, and clicking on "reload" results in a never-ending process that eventually must be killed.

Any ideas?