Why don't my apps that need g-s-d cause it to autostart?

["David C. Rankin" <drankinatty suddenlinkmail com>]

Guys,

    In nearly all my other desktops (fluxbox, e16, e17, icewm, etc..) I have 
always started the gnome-settings-daemon independently as one of the startup 
programs for each of the desktops. It provides the gnome-screensaver and makes 
all the gtk apps look right.

    To my surprise, you can't start g-s-d anymore in opensuse 11.3 and have it 
provide the normal g-s-d services when it is launched as part of another desktop 
(fluxbox, e16, e17, icewm, etc..) -- Why Not??

   When I start gsd, a process is registered in the process table because I can 
see it with ps ax, but it doesn't do anything it is supposed to. GTK apps all 
look pitiful and no screensaver, no nada.... It looks like the g-s-d process 
just sits there and doesn't respond to any of the apps or desktop calls that 
need it services anymore. Up until opensuse 11.3, g-s-d was bulletproof.

	For example, as part of my fluxbox 'startup' config, I include the following:

## Make GTK apps look and behave how they were set up in the gnome config tools

if test -x /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon >/dev/null; then
  /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon &
fi

## start the Gnome clipboard manager
if which parcellite >/dev/null; then
    $(which parcellite) &
fi

## Synaptic touchpad 1.5 second delay after typing
if which tpad >/dev/null; then
    $(which tpad)
fi

<snip>

	In 10.2 -> 11.2 this worked great and provided the gnome screensaver. No, from 
what I can tell, having g-s-d running does nothing.

	From the suse list Spok/I mean Data/no I mean Will Stephenson helped peel back 
my layers of confusion and show that

<Spok quote>
Sure enough there is no app called gnome-settings-daemon in $PATH when the
eponymous package is installed.  Looking at the RPM file list, 2 things stand
out:
an executable in /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon
and a service definition in
/usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.service

This tells me that g-s-d is now a DBUS service that is started on demand.

Sure enough,

# qdbus org.gnome.SettingsDaemon
/
/org
/org/gnome
/org/gnome/SettingsDaemon

showing that trying to access the daemon causes it to start.

So the question for the gnome list is, "why don't my apps that need g-s-d
cause it to autostart?"
</Spok quote>

And the follow-on is "Why don't my apps that need g-s-d get services from it and 
why doesn't it launch the screensaver anymore?" This has to be affecting the 
gnome-sawfish program as well, so what gives? What can we do to get this fixed? 
What can we use as an interim as a workaround?

Thanks..

--
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Telephone: (936) 715-9333
Facsimile: (936) 715-9339
www.rankinlawfirm.com