diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 6f61be418..4262a14f9 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+2008-10-27  Brian Cameron  <brian.cameron@sun.com>
+
+        Fix some crashes with the new GDM 2.24.  Closes #558058.
+
+        * src/ui/ui.c (meta_ui_parse_modifier): another null check
+        * src/core/prefs.c (titlebar_handler, button_layout_handler):
+          more null checks.
+
 2008-10-26  Thomas Thurman  <tthurman@gnome.org>
 
         * src/core/prefs.c (mouse_button_mods_handler): Ignore values
diff --git a/src/core/prefs.c b/src/core/prefs.c
index 267eb47b8..4d37a65cf 100644
--- a/src/core/prefs.c
+++ b/src/core/prefs.c
@@ -1326,13 +1326,14 @@ titlebar_handler (MetaPreference pref,
 {
   PangoFontDescription *new_desc;
 
-  new_desc = pango_font_description_from_string (string_value);
+  if (string_value)
+    new_desc = pango_font_description_from_string (string_value);
 
   if (new_desc == NULL)
     {
       meta_warning (_("Could not parse font description "
                       "\"%s\" from GConf key %s\n"),
-                    string_value,
+                    string_value ? string_value : "(null)",
                     KEY_TITLEBAR_FONT);
 
       *inform_listeners = FALSE;
@@ -1476,16 +1477,17 @@ button_layout_handler (MetaPreference pref,
                          gboolean *inform_listeners)
 {
   MetaButtonLayout new_layout;
-  char **sides;
+  char **sides = NULL;
   int i;
   
   /* We need to ignore unknown button functions, for
    * compat with future versions
    */
   
-  sides = g_strsplit (string_value, ":", 2);
+  if (string_value)
+    sides = g_strsplit (string_value, ":", 2);
 
-  if (sides[0] != NULL)
+  if (sides != NULL && sides[0] != NULL)
     {
       char **buttons;
       int b;
@@ -1545,7 +1547,7 @@ button_layout_handler (MetaPreference pref,
       g_strfreev (buttons);
     }
 
-  if (sides[0] != NULL && sides[1] != NULL)
+  if (sides != NULL && sides[0] != NULL && sides[1] != NULL)
     {
       char **buttons;
       int b;
diff --git a/src/ui/ui.c b/src/ui/ui.c
index b72f114e5..010130c00 100644
--- a/src/ui/ui.c
+++ b/src/ui/ui.c
@@ -850,7 +850,7 @@ meta_ui_parse_modifier (const char          *accel,
   
   *mask = 0;
 
-  if (strcmp (accel, "disabled") == 0)
+  if (accel == NULL || strcmp (accel, "disabled") == 0)
     return TRUE;
   
   meta_ui_accelerator_parse (accel, &gdk_sym, &gdk_code, &gdk_mask);