xfce's xinitrc is not run at session start (was: ignores ~/.config/xfce4/Xft.xrdb)

[Forest]

When logging into my fresh install of xubuntu 8.04 (hardy heron), xfce fails to merge the contents of ~/.config/xfce4/Xft.xrdb into the xrdb database. This is a problem because the settings I chose in the user interface control panel go into that file, but since they are not merged into xrdb at login time, they are never seen by certain applications (e.g. firefox 3).

Upon login:

user@heron:~$ xrdb -q
*customization: -color
user@heron:~$ cat .config/xfce4/Xft.xrdb Xft.antialias: 0
Xft.hinting: 1
Xft.hintstyle: hintfull
Xft.rgba: none

Opening the user interface settings, changing a setting, and closing it again, causes my settings to be merged. Here's the same command output after doing so:

user@heron:~$ xrdb -q
*customization: -color
Xft.antialias: 0
Xft.hinting: 1
Xft.hintstyle: hintfull
Xft.rgba: none

user@heron:~$ cat .config/xfce4/Xft.xrdb
Xft.antialias: 0
Xft.hinting: 1
Xft.hintstyle: hintfull
Xft.rgba: none

I believe the xfce4-utils package owns /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc, which is responsible for merging my xrdb settings.

I think there may be an upstream debian bug, since this guy seems to be having the same problem:
http://beranger.org/index.php?page=diary&2008/03/05/15/10/36-debian-lenny-xfce-cd-buggy-as-no

[Forest (foresto)]

This debian bug seems related:

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=483568

[Forest (foresto)]

Update:

It seems that xinitrc was fine, but simply not being run when my session started. Logging out, explicitly setting my session type to Xfce in the gdm screen, and logging in again got things working.

This guy apparently had the same problem:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2047486#post2047486

[Forest (foresto)]

I guess the question is now: how did xubuntu manage to install in such a way that my default gdm session started xfce, but failed to run xfce's xinitrc?