Sebastien, thanks for the clue! There is no dbus session running. This modification fixes the test case:
$ dbus-launch bash $ gconftool-2 --ping ; echo $? 2 $ gconftool-2 --spawn $ gconftool-2 --ping ; echo $? $ exit Is this a change between the versions of gconf in karmic and lucid, that it now depends on dbus? My problem is fixed and I am not complaining, but should there be more checking to prevent gconftool from starting gconf if dbus is not running? -- gconftool-2 can't find running gconfd-2 https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/529577 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs