Bug#472902: gnome-control-center: Unable to set background

[alephnull at hcoop.net]

Package: gnome-control-center
Version: 1:2.22.0-2
Severity: normal

The desktop background does nto get displayed, either by trying to set
it via gnome-appearance-properties or on the command line using

$ gconftool-2 --set --type string  /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "$file"

The right image is being set in the gconf registry (inspected via
gconf-editor) but the image is not displayed on the root
window. Toggling the /desktop/background/draw_background key does not
have any effect.

The only output from g-a-p is:
(gnome-appearance-properties:18077): appearance-properties-WARNING **: Unknown Tag: comment

I've removed .gnome2/backgrounds.xml to no avail.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.20 (PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_IN.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_IN.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8) (ignored: LC_ALL set to en_IN.utf8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages gnome-control-center depends on:
ii  capplets-data     1:2.22.0-2             configuration applets for GNOME 2 
ii  desktop-file-util 0.15-1                 Utilities for .desktop files
ii  gnome-desktop-dat 2.22.0-1               Common files for GNOME 2 desktop a
ii  gnome-icon-theme  2.22.0-1               GNOME Desktop icon theme
ii  gnome-menus       2.22.0-1               an implementation of the freedeskt
ii  gnome-settings-da 2.22.0-4               GNOME settings daemon
ii  libart-2.0-2      2.3.20-1               Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0       1.22.0-1               The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libbonobo2-0      2.22.0-1               Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libbonoboui2-0    2.22.0-1               The Bonobo UI library
ii  libc6             2.7-9                  GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcairo2         1.4.14-1               The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libdbus-1-3       1.1.20-1               simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2  0.74-1                 simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libebook1.2-9     1.12.3-1               Client library for evolution addre
ii  libfontconfig1    2.5.0-2                generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6      2.3.5-1+b1             FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libgconf2-4       2.22.0-1               GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglade2-0       1:2.6.2-1              library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0      2.16.1-2               The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome-desktop- 2.22.0-1               Utility library for loading .deskt
ii  libgnome-menu2    2.22.0-1               an implementation of the freedeskt
ii  libgnome-window-s 1:2.22.0-2             Utility library for getting window
ii  libgnome2-0       2.20.1.1-1             The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0 2.20.1.1-1             A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgnomekbd2      2.22.0-1               GNOME library to manage keyboard c
ii  libgnomekbdui2    2.22.0-1               User interface library for libgnom
ii  libgnomeui-0      2.20.1.1-1             The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgnomevfs2-0    1:2.22.0-2             GNOME Virtual File System (runtime
ii  libgstreamer-plug 0.10.18-3              GStreamer libraries from the "base
ii  libgstreamer0.10- 0.10.18-4              Core GStreamer libraries and eleme
ii  libgtk2.0-0       2.12.9-2               The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libhal1           0.5.11~rc2-1           Hardware Abstraction Layer - share
ii  libice6           2:1.0.4-1              X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libmetacity0      1:2.22.0-1             library of lightweight GTK2 based 
ii  libnautilus-exten 2.20.0-3               libraries for nautilus components 
ii  liborbit2         1:2.14.12-0.1          libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpanel-applet2- 2.20.3-3               library for GNOME Panel applets
ii  libpango1.0-0     1.20.0-1               Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpng12-0        1.2.15~beta5-3         PNG library - runtime
ii  libpopt0          1.10-3                 lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  libslab0          0.9.8.svn.20070430-1.1 beautification app library file
ii  libsm6            2:1.0.3-1+b1           X11 Session Management library
ii  libstartup-notifi 0.9-1                  library for program launch feedbac
ii  libx11-6          2:1.0.3-7              X11 client-side library
ii  libxcursor1       1:1.1.9-1              X cursor management library
ii  libxft2           2.1.12-2               FreeType-based font drawing librar
ii  libxklavier12     3.5-1                  X Keyboard Extension high-level AP
ii  libxml2           2.6.31.dfsg-2          GNOME XML library
ii  libxrandr2        2:1.2.2-1              X11 RandR extension library
ii  libxrender1       1:0.9.4-1              X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  libxss1           1:1.1.3-1              X11 Screen Saver extension library
ii  zlib1g            1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-11      compression library - runtime

Versions of packages gnome-control-center recommends:
ii  bzip2                         1.0.5-0.1  high-quality block-sorting file co
pn  evolution-data-server         <none>     (no description available)
ii  gnome-session                 2.22.0-2   The GNOME 2 Session Manager
pn  gnome-user-guide              <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information