Bug#531636: gnome-session: Can't start session -- can't acquire name on session bus

[John A Martin]

Package: gnome-session
Version: 2.26.1-6
Severity: normal

Please excuse the mess.  Maybe this will be easier to read.


Attached is result of ps auxwww before logging in on the gdm screen
gnome session.

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Next is ps aux while looking at pop-up something like "I could not start
your session ... start xterm session".

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After clicking on that pop-up there was no xterm but instead I was
looking at a new gdm log-in screen.  Here is the ps auxwww while
looking at the new gdm log-in screen.

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This time the log-in session is changed to failsafe Gnome.  Here is the
result of ps auxwww while looking at the failsafe Gnome greeting.

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After clicking on the welcome pop-up I see apparently normal panels but
no windows and no sawfish.  Here is the result of ps auxwww while
looking at the empty workspace.

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Finally I open a gnome-terminal from the panel, I say
'. .bash-profile;gnome-session' and see a pop-up saying something like
"could not acquire name on session bus".  Here is tie result of pa
auxwww while looking at the noname pop-up.

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The resulting session is barely usable for me because the ssh and gpg
agents and their friends appear not to have been started normally.
This problem has been with me for some time with slightly different
behavior and indications but the same end result for some time.  I
have reverted to gnome-settings-daemon 2.24.1-3 and gnome-session
2.22.3-3 with no joy and no relief when coming back to the current
versions.  (Unused packages rss-glx, libalut0, libglew1.5, and
libopenal1 were removed while going back and forth between the old and
current versions.)

I have no ~/.xsession, ~/.gnomerc, ~/.xsessionrc, or ~/.initrc files.

The following files may be pertinent:

,----[ cat ~/.dmrc ]

[Desktop]
Session=gnome
Language=en_US.UTF-8
`----

,----[ ls -l ~/.config/autostart/ ]
total 56
-rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam 2818 2009-05-06 16:18 bluetooth-applet.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam  141 2009-02-15 09:58 eval.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam  235 2009-06-01 18:22 gksu.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam 6513 2009-05-29 18:15 gnome-at-session.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam 6421 2009-05-09 07:57 gnome-power-manager.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam  430 2009-05-29 18:14 hplip-systray.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam  154 2008-11-30 18:07 iceweasel.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam  169 2009-05-31 15:55 python.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam   94 2009-05-31 19:33 sawfish.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam  338 2009-02-15 10:10 update-notifier.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam  192 2009-06-01 18:21 xemacs-2.desktop
-rw-r--r-- 1 jam jam  211 2009-06-01 18:22 xemacs.desktop
`----

,----[ egrep '^Name=' ~/.config/gnome-session/saved-session/*|cut -d. -f3- ]
desktop:Name=Panel
desktop:Name=deskbar-applet
desktop:Name=evolution-exchange-storage
desktop:Name=Terminal
desktop:Name=Sawfish
desktop:Name=Revelation Password Manager
desktop:Name=epiphany-browser
desktop:Name=firefox-bin
`----

,----[ cat ~/.xsession-errors ]
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Executing gnome-session failed, will try to run x-terminal-emulator
Failed to contact the GConf daemon; exiting.
`----

The packages related to the GConf daemon and dbus and their
dependencies have been reloaded shortly before the actions described
here.

What else should I try?



-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.29-2-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages gnome-session depends on:
ii  gnome-panel                  2.26.2-1    launcher and docking facility for 
ii  gnome-session-bin            2.26.1-5    The GNOME Session Manager - Minima
ii  gnome-settings-daemon        2.26.1-2    daemon handling the GNOME session 
ii  metacity                     1:2.24.0-2  A lightweight GTK2 based Window Ma
ii  sawfish                      1:1.3.5.2-1 a window manager for X11

gnome-session recommends no packages.

Versions of packages gnome-session suggests:
ii  desktop-base                  5.0.5      common files for the Debian Deskto
ii  gnome-keyring                 2.26.1-1   GNOME keyring services (daemon and
ii  gnome-user-guide [gnome2-user 2.24.2-2   GNOME user's guide

-- no debconf information