gdm ignores xubuntu-gdm-theme gconf settings

[Forest]

I'm on a new installation of xubuntu Natty. When I first rebooted after installing, the xubuntu-gdm-theme showed up correctly on the login screen. Since then, gdm has started ignoring those theme settings, leaving the login screen with a black background and what looks like default colors & icons on the panel bar.

I tried purging and reinstalling the following packages:

gdm
xubuntu-gdm-theme
xubuntu-artwork
xubuntu-default-settings
xubuntu-desktop

...but that didn't help.

I have verified that the xubuntu-gdm-theme settings are present in gdm's gconf database...

$ for i in /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename /desktop/gnome/interface/icon_theme /desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme /desktop/gnome/interface/buttons_have_icons /desktop/gnome/interface/menus_have_icons ; do sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --get $i; done
/usr/share/xfce4/backdrops/xubuntu-greybird.png
elementaryXubuntu
greybird
true
true

...yet they seem to be ignored.

For comparison, I'm attaching screen shots of my (broken) gdm screen and a correct one from a virtual machine. (Try to ignore the fact that they're different screen resolutions.)

[Forest (foresto)]

Update: Installing gnome-settings-daemon got xubuntu-gdm-theme to work again. Removing (not purging) gnome-settings-daemon caused the xubuntu theme to disappear again. With this in mind, shouldn't gnome-settings-daemon be a proper dependency instead of merely a recommended package? Or, perhaps xubuntu-gdm-theme can be made to work without it by setting something up in a postinst script?

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

We dropped the gdm theme from xubuntu-artwork in oneiric, as lightdm is used by default (and recommended packages are installed by default, so I think that should've been ok anyway).

[Forest (foresto)]

Update 2: Installing gnome-settings-daemon had the unfortunate side effect of this message being written to ~/.xsession-errors every few seconds, endlessly:

** (gnome-settings-daemon:2013): WARNING **: Connection failed, reconnecting...

I have therefore removed gnome-settings-daemon from my xubuntu systems. I guess I'll have to wait for lightdm before I can have a good-looking login screen again.