symmetric encryption broken

[Nathan Johnson]

For tests on my system, under no circumstance does symmetric encryption

(gpg -c)

work.  Files become scrambled, but never de-scrambled.  Files aren't even the
same size after reversing the encryption.  I have tried various encryption and
compression algorithms.

Is generic symmetric encryption of files un-implemented?  a known problem?
If there is more information or tests I can provide, please let me know.

Here is information on my system:

gpg (GnuPG) 1.0.4
Supported algorithms:
Cipher: 3DES, CAST5, BLOWFISH, RIJNDAEL, RIJNDAEL192, RIJNDAEL256, TWOFISH

libc 2.2.1
Linux 2.4.2
AMD Duron

/usr/bin/gpg: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1, dynamically
linked (uses shared libs), stripped