hmm, does it work if you start it with "pd -noprefs"? i would suspect the problem to be in the "libdir" loader.
Pd will start this way, but if I do just about anything, it will show similar errors. For instance, I got this error message when I rightclicked-help on the number box (and might I add, what a nice looking number box) in the first control example. This also happens when I try to get help on [osc~] in the first audio example. The error messages are almost identical (may even be, although I haven't looked too close at the hex numbers).
*** stack smashing detected ***: pd terminated ======= Backtrace: ========= /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(__fortify_fail+0x48)[0xb7db8138] /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(__fortify_fail+0x0)[0xb7db80f0] pd[0x80c2698] ======= Memory map: ======== 08048000-0811b000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 395201 /usr/bin/pd 0811b000-0811d000 rw-p 000d2000 08:01 395201 /usr/bin/pd 0811d000-0a150000 rw-p 0811d000 00:00 0 [heap] b7cbe000-b7cc8000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 505984 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 b7cc8000-b7cc9000 rw-p 0000a000 08:01 505984 /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 b7cc9000-b7ccb000 rw-p b7cc9000 00:00 0 b7ccb000-b7e14000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 523578 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/ libc-2.7.so b7e14000-b7e15000 r--p 00149000 08:01 523578 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/ libc-2.7.so b7e15000-b7e17000 rw-p 0014a000 08:01 523578 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/ libc-2.7.so b7e17000-b7e1a000 rw-p b7e17000 00:00 0 b7e1a000-b7e2e000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 523604 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/ libpthread-2.7.so b7e2e000-b7e30000 rw-p 00013000 08:01 523604 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/ libpthread-2.7.so b7e30000-b7e32000 rw-p b7e30000 00:00 0 b7e32000-b7e55000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 523586 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/ libm-2.7.so b7e55000-b7e57000 rw-p 00023000 08:01 523586 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/ libm-2.7.so b7e57000-b7e59000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 523584 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/ libdl-2.7.so b7e59000-b7e5b000 rw-p 00001000 08:01 523584 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/ libdl-2.7.so b7e5b000-b7e6a000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 394059 /usr/lib/libjack.so.0.0.28 b7e6a000-b7e6c000 rw-p 0000f000 08:01 394059 /usr/lib/libjack.so.0.0.28 b7e6c000-b7e75000 rw-p b7e6c000 00:00 0 b7e75000-b7e7c000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 523608 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/ librt-2.7.so b7e7c000-b7e7e000 rw-p 00006000 08:01 523608 /lib/tls/i686/cmov/ librt-2.7.so b7e7e000-b7f3d000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 393080 /usr/lib/libasound.so.2.0.0 b7f3d000-b7f41000 rw-p 000be000 08:01 393080 /usr/lib/libasound.so.2.0.0 b7f53000-b7f55000 rw-p b7f53000 00:00 0 b7f55000-b7f56000 r-xp b7f55000 00:00 0 [vdso] b7f56000-b7f70000 r-xp 00000000 08:01 505939 /lib/ld-2.7.so b7f70000-b7f72000 rw-p 00019000 08:01 505939 /lib/ld-2.7.so bf8c7000-bf8dc000 rw-p bffeb000 00:00 0 [stack] Pd: signal 6 pd_gui: pd process exited