1.6 reports "ERROR: required feature not supported"

[Rich Johnson]

Hi folks--

I'm new to gnucash.  I'd like to try it out but I can't get past the
following:

ERROR:  In procedure scm-error in expression (scm-error (quote
misc-error) #f ...);
ERROR:  ;required feature not supported:  printf

Any ideas?  Should I look elsewhere--such as libguile?

For the record:
  This is a new installation, not an upgrade.  Rebuilding gnucash from
sources doesn't help--as opposed to downloading executables.

I'm using the following debian packages:
  gnucash        1.6.6-1
  libguile9       1:1.4-24
  guile1.4-slib 1:1.4-24
  slib               2d2-1

And, I tried posting to gnucash-user, but I got no response.

Thanks,
--rich