ssh "error writing to authentication socket"; ssh-agent or seahorse issue?

[Matt Price]

some more info on this issue.  I just noticed that I can in fact ssh
once per session while in gnome (again, I'm running feisty, up to date,
using gnome/ubuntu-desktop).  However, that single instance generates
this error:
Error writing to authentication socket.

and thereafter the ssh fails from within the gnome session. However, I
*can* ssh, not only with root as I'd said before, but from a true
terminal (not from inside a plain xterm, but from VT1-6 or after issuing
"su - matt" from within an xterm).  

THis leads me to suspect there's some issue with ssh-agent.  I don't
know exactly what processes provide the ssh authentication in my system,
but here's what ps says about it:

$ ps aux | grep ssh
matt      5289  0.0  0.0   4220   636 ?        Ss   13:39
0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch
--exit-with-session /usr/bin/seahorse-agent
--execute /usr/bin/gnome-session
matt      5290  0.0  0.0   4220  1016 ?        Ss   13:39
0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch
--exit-with-session /usr/bin/seahorse-agent
--execute /usr/bin/gnome-session
root      6037  0.0  0.1   5020  1048 ?        Ss   13:39
0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
---------------------------
as for seahorse, I learned this:
~$ ps aux | grep seaho
matt      5289  0.0  0.0   4220   636 ?        Ss   13:39
0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch
--exit-with-session /usr/bin/seahorse-agent
--execute /usr/bin/gnome-session
matt      5290  0.0  0.0   4220  1016 ?        Ss   13:39
0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch
--exit-with-session /usr/bin/seahorse-agent
--execute /usr/bin/gnome-session
matt      5294  0.0  0.0   2512   624 ?        S    13:39
0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session /usr/bin/seahorse-agent
--execute /usr/bin/gnome-session
matt      5330  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        Zs   13:39   0:00
[seahorse-agent] <defunct>
------------------------

If I'm write, seahorse is running in order to provide authentication to
evolution and other services.  Does anyone know what I ought to do to
figure this issue out?  Seahorse is the latest (feisty) version:  

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