http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=121953 (Dwayne MacKinnon)
http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=75190 
Turn the GTK Recent Manager feature off.
Other workaround
% setenv OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP gnome

Backout of misfeature in cws_src680_obr05 branch.
* rev 1.9 of gsl/shell/source/unix/sysshell/recently_used_file_handler.cxx
* rev 1.8 of gsl/shell/source/unix/sysshell/systemshell.cxx

See also
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-openoffice/2007-December/003453.html
gsl/shell/source/unix/sysshell/recently_used_file_handler.cxx
(rev. 1.8.44.2)
gsl/shell/source/unix/sysshell/systemshell.cxx
(rev. 1.7.44.1)

Index: systemshell.cxx
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/gsl/shell/source/unix/sysshell/systemshell.cxx,v
retrieving revision 1.8
diff -u -u -r1.8 systemshell.cxx
--- shell/source/unix/sysshell/systemshell.cxx	19 Jun 2007 16:12:44 -0000	1.8
+++ shell/source/unix/sysshell/systemshell.cxx	30 Mar 2008 22:06:15 -0000
@@ -72,9 +72,6 @@
 const rtl::OUString LIB_RECENT_FILE = UNISTRING("librecentfile.so");
 const rtl::OUString DEFAULT_CONTEXT = UNISTRING("DefaultContext");
 
-void * (* sym_gtk_recent_manager_get_default) () = NULL;
-void   (* sym_gtk_recent_manager_add_item) (void *, const char *) = NULL;
-
 // We need to re-encode file urls because osl_getFileURLFromSystemPath converts
 // to UTF-8 before encoding non ascii characters, which is not what other apps expect.
 static rtl::OUString translateToExternalUrl(const rtl::OUString& internalUrl)
@@ -114,57 +111,31 @@
         return url;
     }
     
-    bool init_recent_manager_api()
-    {
-        oslModule hDefault;
-        if( osl_getModuleHandle( NULL, &hDefault ) )
-        {
-            sym_gtk_recent_manager_get_default = (void * (*)())
-                osl_getAsciiFunctionSymbol(hDefault, "gtk_recent_manager_get_default");
-            sym_gtk_recent_manager_add_item = (void (*)(void *, const char *)) 
-                osl_getAsciiFunctionSymbol(hDefault, "gtk_recent_manager_add_item");
-            
-        }
-        bool ret = (NULL != sym_gtk_recent_manager_get_default) && (NULL != sym_gtk_recent_manager_add_item);
-        return ret;
-    }
-            
-    
     //##############################
     void AddToRecentDocumentList(const rtl::OUString& aFileUrl, const rtl::OUString& aMimeType)
     {
-        static bool bIsRecentManagerPresent = init_recent_manager_api();
-        
         // Convert file URL for external use (see above)
         rtl::OUString externalUrl = translateToExternalUrl(aFileUrl);
+        rtl::OUString librecentfile_url = get_absolute_library_url(LIB_RECENT_FILE);
+
         if( 0 == externalUrl.getLength() )
             externalUrl = aFileUrl;
-        
-        if( bIsRecentManagerPresent )
-        {
-            void * recent_manager = sym_gtk_recent_manager_get_default();
-            sym_gtk_recent_manager_add_item(recent_manager, rtl::OUStringToOString(aFileUrl, RTL_TEXTENCODING_UTF8).getStr());
-        }
-        else
+    
+        if (librecentfile_url.getLength())
         {
-            rtl::OUString librecentfile_url = get_absolute_library_url(LIB_RECENT_FILE);
-        
-            if (librecentfile_url.getLength())
-            {
-                osl::Module module(librecentfile_url);
+            osl::Module module(librecentfile_url);
 
-                if (module.is())
-                {
-                    // convert from reinterpret_cast<PFUNC_ADD_TO_RECENTLY_USED_LIST>
-                    // not allowed in gcc 3.3 without permissive.
-                    PFUNC_ADD_TO_RECENTLY_USED_LIST add_to_recently_used_file_list = 
-                        reinterpret_cast<PFUNC_ADD_TO_RECENTLY_USED_LIST>(module.getFunctionSymbol(SYM_ADD_TO_RECENTLY_USED_FILE_LIST));
-                
-                    if (add_to_recently_used_file_list)
-                        add_to_recently_used_file_list(aFileUrl, aMimeType);
-                }
+            if (module.is())
+            {
+                // convert from reinterpret_cast<PFUNC_ADD_TO_RECENTLY_USED_LIST>
+                // not allowed in gcc 3.3 without permissive.
+                PFUNC_ADD_TO_RECENTLY_USED_LIST add_to_recently_used_file_list = 
+                    reinterpret_cast<PFUNC_ADD_TO_RECENTLY_USED_LIST>(module.getFunctionSymbol(SYM_ADD_TO_RECENTLY_USED_FILE_LIST));
+            
+                if (add_to_recently_used_file_list)
+                    add_to_recently_used_file_list(aFileUrl, aMimeType);
             }
-        }        
+        }
     }
     
 } // namespace SystemShell