I used the following configure options:

 ./configure --enable-system-install --disable-nls --without-esmtp

I don't know what other info might be useful to solve this.

I recompiled balsa again today and I can still reproduce everything.

This is the configure log.

loading cache ./config.cache
checking for a BSD compatible install... (cached) /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... (cached) yes
checking for working aclocal... found
checking for working autoconf... found
checking for working automake... found
checking for working autoheader... found
checking for working makeinfo... found
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether the C compiler (gcc  ) works... yes
checking whether the C compiler (gcc  ) is a cross-compiler... no
checking whether we are using GNU C... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for POSIXized ISC... no
checking for glib-config... (cached) /usr/bin/glib-config
checking for GLIB - version >= 1.2.0... yes
checking for gnome-config... (cached) /opt/gnome/bin/gnome-config
checking if /opt/gnome/bin/gnome-config works... yes
checking for orbit-config... (cached) /usr/bin/orbit-config
checking for orbit-idl... (cached) /usr/bin/orbit-idl
checking for working ORBit environment... (cached) yes
checking for gnorba libraries... (cached) yes
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether the C compiler (gcc -g -O2 ) works... yes
checking whether the C compiler (gcc -g -O2 ) is a cross-compiler... no
checking whether we are using GNU C... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking how to run the C preprocessor... (cached) gcc -E
checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes
checking for flex... (cached) flex
checking for flex... (cached) flex
checking for yywrap in -lfl... (cached) yes
checking lex output file root... (cached) lex.yy
checking whether yytext is a pointer... (cached) yes
checking for bison... no
checking for byacc... no
checking for Cygwin environment... (cached) no
checking for mingw32 environment... (cached) no
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for ld used by GCC... (cached) /usr/i486-suse-linux/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/i486-suse-linux/bin/ld) is GNU ld... (cached) yes
checking for /usr/i486-suse-linux/bin/ld option to reload object files... (cached) -r
checking for BSD-compatible nm... (cached) /usr/bin/nm -B
checking whether ln -s works... (cached) yes
checking how to recognise dependant libraries... (cached) pass_all
checking for object suffix... (cached) o
checking for executable suffix... (cached) no
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output... (cached) ok
checking for dlfcn.h... (cached) yes
checking for ranlib... (cached) ranlib
checking for strip... (cached) strip
checking for objdir... .libs
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... (cached)         -fPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag         -fPIC works... (cached) yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... (cached) yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.lo... (cached) yes
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... yes
checking whether the linker (/usr/i486-suse-linux/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... (cached) no
creating libtool
checking for pthread_create in -lpthread... (cached) yes
checking for gtk-config... (cached) /usr/bin/gtk-config
checking for GTK - version >= 1.2.0... yes
checking for SmcSaveYourselfDone in -lSM... (cached) yes
checking for X11/SM/SMlib.h... (cached) yes
checking for XpmFreeXpmImage in -lXpm... (cached) yes
checking for new_pspell_manager in -lpspell... (cached) yes
checking for gnome-libs version >= 1.2.1... yes
checking for libgnomeui/gnome-window-icon.h... (cached) no
checking for gnome-config... (cached) /opt/gnome/bin/gnome-config
checking for GNOME-PRINT - version >= 0.25.0... did not find any version
checking for ranlib... (cached) ranlib
checking for working const... (cached) yes
checking for inline... (cached) inline
checking for off_t... (cached) yes
checking for size_t... (cached) yes
checking for working alloca.h... (cached) yes
checking for alloca... (cached) yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking for getpagesize... (cached) yes
checking for working mmap... (cached) yes
checking for argz.h... (cached) yes
checking for limits.h... (cached) yes
checking for locale.h... (cached) yes
checking for nl_types.h... (cached) yes
checking for malloc.h... (cached) yes
checking for string.h... (cached) yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking for sys/param.h... (cached) yes
checking for getcwd... (cached) yes
checking for munmap... (cached) yes
checking for putenv... (cached) yes
checking for setenv... (cached) yes
checking for setlocale... (cached) yes
checking for strchr... (cached) yes
checking for strcasecmp... (cached) yes
checking for strdup... (cached) yes
checking for __argz_count... (cached) yes
checking for __argz_stringify... (cached) yes
checking for __argz_next... (cached) yes
checking for LC_MESSAGES... (cached) yes
checking whether NLS is requested... no
checking for crypt in -lcrypt... (cached) yes
checking for sigaction.h... (cached) no
checking for sigset.h... (cached) no
checking for CVS information... no
checking whether to build unfinished features... no
checking whether to enable reply to MDN requests... yes
checking whether to use threads... yes
checking whether to use LDAP... no
checking whether to use GtkHTML... no
checking whether to use GdkPixbuf... not found
checking whether to install into Gnome's prefix... yes
checking for gawk... (cached) gawk
checking whether to build ESMTP support... no
checking whether to build GSS support... no
checking whether to build SSL support... no
checking whether to build SASL support... no
checking for iconv_open in -liconv... (cached) no
checking for iconv_open... (cached) yes
checking whether to use PCRE... not found
updating cache ./config.cache
creating ./config.status
creating Makefile
creating balsa.1
creating balsa.spec
creating po/Makefile.in
creating macros/Makefile
creating intl/Makefile
creating sounds/Makefile
creating images/Makefile
creating help/Makefile
creating help/C/Makefile
creating libbalsa/Makefile
creating libinit_balsa/Makefile
creating src/Makefile
creating config.h
config.h is unchanged
linking ./intl/libgettext.h to intl/libintl.h
configuring in libmutt
running /bin/sh ./configure  --enable-system-install --disable-nls --without-esmtp --prefix=/opt/gnome --cache-file=.././config.cache --srcdir=.
loading cache .././config.cache
checking for a BSD compatible install... (cached) /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... (cached) yes
checking for working aclocal... found
checking for working autoconf... found
checking for working automake... found
checking for working autoheader... found
checking for working makeinfo... found
checking for Cygwin environment... (cached) no
checking for mingw32 environment... (cached) no
checking how to run the C preprocessor... (cached) gcc -E
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether the C compiler (gcc  ) works... yes
checking whether the C compiler (gcc  ) is a cross-compiler... no
checking whether we are using GNU C... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for ld used by GCC... (cached) /usr/i486-suse-linux/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/i486-suse-linux/bin/ld) is GNU ld... (cached) yes
checking for /usr/i486-suse-linux/bin/ld option to reload object files... (cached) -r
checking for BSD-compatible nm... (cached) /usr/bin/nm -B
checking whether ln -s works... (cached) yes
checking how to recognise dependant libraries... (cached) pass_all
checking for object suffix... (cached) o
checking for executable suffix... (cached) no
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output... (cached) ok
checking for dlfcn.h... (cached) yes
checking for ranlib... (cached) ranlib
checking for strip... (cached) strip
checking for objdir... .libs
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... (cached)          -fPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag          -fPIC works... (cached) yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... (cached) yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.lo... (cached) yes
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... yes
checking whether the linker (/usr/i486-suse-linux/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... (cached) no
creating libtool
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for prefix... /opt/gnome
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether the C compiler (gcc -g -O2 ) works... yes
checking whether the C compiler (gcc -g -O2 ) is a cross-compiler... no
checking whether we are using GNU C... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... (cached) yes
checking for a BSD compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for sendmail... (cached) /usr/sbin/sendmail
checking for ispell... (cached) no
checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes
checking for stdarg.h... (cached) yes
checking for sys/ioctl.h... (cached) yes
checking for sysexits.h... (cached) yes
checking return type of signal handlers... (cached) void
checking for sys_siglist declaration in signal.h or unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking size of long... (cached) 4
checking for pid_t... (cached) yes
checking for setegid... (cached) yes
checking for srand48... (cached) yes
checking for strerror... (cached) yes
checking for strcasecmp... (cached) yes
checking for ftruncate... (cached) yes
checking for strftime... (cached) yes
checking for fchdir... (cached) yes
checking for regcomp... (cached) yes
checking where new mail is stored... (cached) /var/spool/mail
checking if /var/spool/mail is world writable... (cached) yes
checking where to put architecture-independent data files... (cached) ${prefix}/share
checking for setsockopt... (cached) yes
checking for gethostent... (cached) yes
checking for getaddrinfo... (cached) yes
checking for iconv... (cached) yes
checking whether this iconv is good enough... (cached) yes
checking whether iconv is non-transcribing... (cached) no
checking whether to use PCRE... not found
updating cache .././config.cache
creating ./config.status
creating Makefile
creating imap/Makefile
creating muttconfig.h
muttconfig.h is unchanged

================ Final configuration ===================
    Installing into prefix: /opt/gnome
      Using multithreading: yes
 Using incomplete features: no
Installing some files into  
            Gnome's prefix: yes (may require root privileges)
   Enable compile warnings: yes
                Use ESMTP : no
               Use GtkHTML: no
                  Use LDAP: no
                   Use GSS: no
                   Use SSL: no
                  Use SASL: no
          Printing support: no (gnome-print >= 0.25 required)

