khelpcenter 'help' io-slave missing

[James McDonald]

Folks
I am getting the following after compiling kde3.1.2 installing it under
$HOME/kde3.1.2 and then rpm -e kde* from the old original default mdk9.1
installation

Quote {
An error occured while loading help:/khelpcenter/index.html?anchor=welcome:

Could not start process Unable to create io-slave:
klauncher said: Unknown protocol 'help'.
}

Any suggestions? I have googled my brains out trying to find a reference
that says the io-slave works thusly and installs files x and therefore
requires y so you get z result, but all I get is plaintive crys from
people in similar situations and the threads keep dying before an answer
comes.

Any help appreciatied (npi)