Still appears here:
$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 8.10
Release:	8.10
Codename:	intrepid


$ killall -9 nm-applet
nm-applet: no process killed
$ nm-applet --sm-disable

** (nm-applet:14122): WARNING **: <WARN>  applet_dbus_manager_start_service(): Could not acquire the NetworkManagerUserSettings service.
  Message: 'Connection ":1.21" is not allowed to own the service "org.freedesktop.NetworkManagerUserSettings" due to security policies in the configuration file'


(nm-applet:14122): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

$ apt-cache policy dbus network-manager network-manager-gnome consolekit
dbus:
  Installed: 1.2.4-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.2.4-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.2.4-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
network-manager:
  Installed: 0.7~~svn20081018t105859-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.7~~svn20081018t105859-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.7~~svn20081018t105859-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
network-manager-gnome:
  Installed: 0.7~~svn20081020t000444-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.7~~svn20081020t000444-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.7~~svn20081020t000444-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
consolekit:
  Installed: 0.2.10-1ubuntu8
  Candidate: 0.2.10-1ubuntu8
  Version table:
 *** 0.2.10-1ubuntu8 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status


Some of my configuration files:
$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
#auto lo
#iface lo inet loopback
#iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
        bridge_ports eth0
        bridge_fd 9
        bridge_hello 2
        bridge_maxage 12
        bridge_stp off

$ cat /etc/dbus-1/system.d/NetworkManager.conf
<!DOCTYPE busconfig PUBLIC
 "-//freedesktop//DTD D-BUS Bus Configuration 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/dbus/1.0/busconfig.dtd">
<busconfig>
        <policy user="root">
                <allow own="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"/>
                <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"/>
                <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"/>

		<allow own="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.PPP"/>
                <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.PPP"/>
                <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.PPP"/>
        </policy>
        <policy user="haldaemon">
                <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"/>
                <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"/>
        </policy>
        <policy at_console="true">
                <allow send_destination="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"/>
                <allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"/>
        </policy>
        <policy context="default">
                <deny own="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"/>
                <deny send_destination="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"/>
                <deny send_interface="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager"/>

                <deny own="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.PPP"/>
                <deny send_destination="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.PPP"/>
                <deny send_interface="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.PPP"/>
        </policy>

        <limit name="max_replies_per_connection">512</limit>
</busconfig>