gdm not reading .bash_profile. Not even reading .xsession sometimes.

[Dan Kegel <dank kegel com>]

OK, this has been a FAQ for about five years
probably, but I'm used to .bash_profile
getting sourced when I log in, and having
those variables available in every shell thereafter --
even if I log in via gdm and the like.

Now I'm trying a modern distro (ubuntu 05.10), and suddenly
.bash_profile isn't read on startup.
The web is strewn with people complaining about this,
and using lame workarounds like putting everything into
.bashrc, and less lame workarounds like creating a
.xsession that explicitly sources .bash_login before it
invokes gnome-session.

I gather .xsession is the right route.
It worked ok once , but for some reason it stopped doing
anything.  I think I tracked it down
to STARTUP getting set in
 /etc/X11/Xsession.d/20xorg-common_process-args
because I told GDM to use Gnome instead of Default,
and 50xorg-common_determine-startup not looking for
.xsession if STARTUP is set.
Evidently the intent of gdm was to let users say
"No, don't execute my .xsession file, it must have been broken."
Only it's not advertised as such, which makes it confusing.

So peachy.  Is there *any* startup file in ~ that's reliably executed
when a user logs in via gdm?  .xsession isn't it.
- Dan

--
Wine for Windows ISVs: http://kegel.com/wine/isv