I'm pretty sure the bug is not within xpra but within debian.
I have reported a related bug:
#856662 xorg: starting X within X without specifying -vt destroys
current X session
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=856662
I believe fixing #856662 also fixes this xpra bug as the symptoms are
the same.
Removing xpra from debian repository would be a great loss.
> This does not happen with current xpra v1.0.3-r15051 from xpra
repository.
I have to correct myself: Now it happens with xpra v1.0.3, too. I'm not
sure why I didn't have the error the first time I checked this.