Mandrake just went from Gnome 1.x to Gnome 2.x in Mandrake 9.0. Are you trying to install themes for Gnome 2.x? If you are trying to install 1.x themes in 2.x I think you will have this sort of problem. It would be sort of like trying to install Windows 3.1 themes on Windows 9x.
I have to admit that I don't have much experience with Gnome/Metacity themes as I haven't really used Gnome until I upgraded to RedHat 8.0. I've always used KDE and Themes worked great with KDE. With RedHat they have this new Bluecurve Gnome theme that suits me just fine so I've never changed it.
I did try and install a couple of themes from that site you sent me and I think I get the same problem you get. But as I said, I don't have much experience with Gnome. Maybe some of the other hard core "themers" here can help us out. Sorry I couldn't give you a quick easy answer, there may be one. If you find out the secret maybe you could post it so we can put it up on the FAQ site.
[ November 20, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]