gconf.xml.defaults not being read for gnome-panel

[Andrew Beverley <andy andybev com>]

Scenario: I'm customising a copy of the Ubuntu live CD and would like to
configure the default gnome-panel differently to the standard Ubuntu panel. The
ubuntu user is created at boot time.

To achieve this I have made my changes to the panel and taken a snapshot of the
.gconf directory. I have then tried copying the contents of this into both
/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults/ and /etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory/ but the
settings are not used on the start up of the panel at boot time.

Analysis of problem:

If I shut down gconfd (gconftool-2 --shutdown) and then start it (gconftool-2
--spawn) the following is contained in the user log file (5 lines):

Jun  2 22:40:44 ubuntu gconfd (ubuntu-9717): Resolved address
"xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read-only configuration
source at position 0
Jun  2 22:40:44 ubuntu gconfd (ubuntu-9717): Resolved address
"xml:readwrite:/home/ubuntu/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at
position 1
Jun  2 22:40:44 ubuntu gconfd (ubuntu-9717): Resolved address
"xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only configuration source
at position 2
Jun  2 22:40:44 ubuntu gconfd (ubuntu-9717): Resolved address
"xml:readonly:/var/lib/gconf/debian.defaults" to a read-only configuration
source at position 3
Jun  2 22:40:44 ubuntu gconfd (ubuntu-9717): Resolved address
"xml:readonly:/var/lib/gconf/defaults" to a read-only configuration source at
position 4

However, if I then run 'killall gnome-panel' then only the following line is
contained in the user log file:

Jun  2 22:40:51 ubuntu gconfd (ubuntu-9717): Resolved address
"xml:readwrite:/home/ubuntu/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at
position 0

Therefore it seems to only read the user's gconf directory on startup of the
panel, not all the files as detailed in /etc/gconf/2/path as it does on normal
startup. Is this correct?

I can see a similar thing happening on boot - the user log file shows all 5
files as above being read, and then 2 seconds later (presumably when the panel
starts), just ~/.gconf is read.

I hope this makes sense - please let me know if I can provide any further
information.

Thanks,

Andy Beverley