There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon

Here is a screen shot.

Here it is as text:

There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon.

Some things, such as themes, sounds, or background settings may not work correctly.

The last error message was:

Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

GNOME will still try to restart the Settings Daemon next time you log in.

I've been seeing it pretty often recently, though I'm not sure when it started. I do see that there have been lots of reports of the problem, going back some months, but the ones I saw were all marked as invalid. Does that mean the Ubuntu people are going to document it as a feature soon? (Really, Gutsy has been a pretty major disappointment and I am unable to recommend the current Ubuntu to new users...)

I am not eager to become a programmer again--I would prefer that it simply work. However, I am willing to collect diagnostic data or even run a reasonable number of diagnostic tools if that will help you and the Ubuntu project. I would probably even be willing to join some kind of regression testing group if it would improve the future reliability of such computers as mine, but...

I currently don't have any solid or even fuzzy hypotheses about the problems that afflict this particular machine. I run Ubuntu on a number of IBM/Lenovo machines, and there are far fewer problems on that hardware. This machine is the only Sharp, and the only one with an AMD CPU. There are some input-related problems that seem to be related to the low level of the graphics stuff and that might be related to GNOME. There is a chronic startup problem (that I've reported separately a long time ago and never gotten any help with) that affects the network. This is a startup problem, too, but I don't see the connection. The most serious problem is the white screen of death, which is becoming increasingly common, but again I don't see any plausible connections to it. (Yes, I've reported that bug, too, and not even received anything I could recognize as a helpful diagnostic suggestion...)

I can confirm this. I happens often. And always when starting ubuntu from CD.

I can confirm this too. Today it happened to my gutsy installation for the first time. Logging out and then in again seems to solve the problem, but that's really annoying.

After restarting the computer the message reappears.

@shanen

Thanks for the text. I hope there would be solutions for this or workaround maybe.

I don't understand why the status was changed back to "New" though I had confirmed. I'm confirming this bug again.

@Chandru. Dunno what happen. Thanks for confirming.

This has also happened to me a handful of times this past week or two. Not something I experienced before that.

.xsession-errors is showing a bunch of errors. Don't know if this would be relevant here, but I've included a bit. Please let me know if there is any information that I could provide that would be useful:

[code]/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
SESSION_MANAGER=local/ubuntu7:/tmp/.ICE-unix/8649
Window manager warning: Failed to read saved session file /home/(myusername)/.metacity/sessions/default0.ms: Failed to open file '/home/krister/.metacity/sessions/default0.ms': No such file or d
libnotify-Message: Unable to get session bus: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-5JCelgkgmz: Connection refused
** Message: Not starting remote desktop server
libnotify-Message: Unable to get session bus: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-5JCelgkgmz: Connection refused[/code]

Ubuntu 7.10, 64bit.

Thank you for your bug report. Could you attach .xsession-errors next time you get the issue?

Here is my .xsession-errors after gnome settings daemon failed to start.

I removed the "." to unhide it on my system.

Here is the screenshot of the error message in my case. It is slightly different from what the original reporter posted. Thought it would be helpful.

Thought re-confirming it should be ok as the bug is reproducible and the required information has been provided.

> Thank you for your bug report. Could you attach .xsession-errors next time you get the issue?

I saved a copy at the time. Should be attached here.

There is no useful information there, the issue might be fixed to hardy now though, could you try if you still get the bug?

I hope all is well. Also, I hope the attached can help.

In my case, I started getting this error randomly on boot when I switched to the Realtime Kernel (package linux-rt). Switching back to the regular kernel eliminated the occurence of this.

synaptic add of dbus-x11 on top of libgnome-settings-daemon fixed by rt prob

I confirm this on the final candidate Hardy image (080422.2)

Note that there are several different variations on this error dialog, so please copy the entire text into this bug to confirm that you are experiencing the same problem.

I saw the "Did not receive a reply" variant of this when testing an 8.04 release candidate under KVM. I checked, and gnome-settings-daemon was in fact running. I attribute this to a race condition caused by kvm, particularly as there was increased load on the system during this installation, and I did not see the problem in other tests under kvm.

Hi,
I'm getting the same error when starting up Ubuntu. I'm using the latest version, 8.04.
Here is the exact message:

"There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon.
Some things, such as themes, sounds, or background settings may not work correctly.
The last error message was:
Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.
GNOME will still try to restart the Settings Daemon next time you log in."

In my case, this happens every time when the wireless network is configured manually with static IP.
When it's configured automatically there are no problems.

If anyone has a clue on how to solve this issue, please let me know, it's really annoying.

does anybody still get this issue and could explain how to trigger it on a clean installation?

If I have this in .config/autostart

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Own x-desktop autostart
Exec=/home/ytti/.config/x-desktop/global.rc
Icon=gnome-run
Comment=

gnome-settings-daemon always crashes (which causes theme and more annoyingly keyboard layout to be wrong)

[ytti@nekrotuska ~]% cat .config/x-desktop/global.rc
#!/usr/bin/env sh

directory=$HOME/.config/x-desktop
$directory/local.rc &
[ytti@nekrotuska ~]% cat .config/x-desktop/local.rc
#!/usr/bin/env sh

gnome-terminal --geometry 115x36+0+25 &
gnome-terminal --geometry 114x36+705+25 &
gnome-terminal --geometry 115x36+0+525 &
gnome-terminal --geometry 114x36+705+525 &
#ssh-add &

If I remove that file from autostart, I never see this crash. This issue appered about two weeks ago I think.

When I installed Ubuntu, I got this error when I configured the wlan with
static IP.
So what happened, was:
1. Configured the wlan with a static IP
2. Restart my machine
3. Logged into ubuntu
4. System crashes

This was solved by configuring the wlan using DHCP

On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 6:36 AM, Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> wrote:

> does anybody still get this issue and could explain how to trigger it on
> a clean installation?
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => Incomplete
>
> --
> There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/185157
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in "gnome-control-center" source package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> The problem isn't frequent. But sometimes, after logging in this error
> message always prompts.
>
> "There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon"
>
>
> Members of my family experienced it also after logging in to their Ubuntu
> desktop accounts.
>
> Affected are the following:
>
> 1.) Default Gnome theme. Human theme is not working.
> 2.) Other partitions not detected.
>
> Those were just the effects that I experienced and the only workaround that
> I use is to run gnome-settings-daemon. It'll repair the theme but the
> partitions remains undetected. So I will have to re-login and everything
> works fine.
>
>
> I hope there are solutions for this so I won't have to re-login or reboot
> the next time it happens.
>
> Thank you.
>

--
Daniel Valencia Backhoff
Cel: (449) 155.30.47

I got this error sometimes after login (8.04-64).

"There was an error starting the GNOME Settings Daemon.
Some things, such as themes, sounds, or background settings may not work correctly.
The last error message was:
Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.
GNOME will still try to restart the Settings Daemon next time you log in."

After waiting couple of minutes the error will pop up and everything seems to work. Sometimes the waiting results in a broken network connection.

Possible troublemakers:
- Geforce 9600 GT 512mb
- RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
- UFW

does anybody still get this issue in intrepid?

I haven't been willing to try Intrepid yet, but I'm still seeing it on one machine. I actually have a highly reproducible version on that machine. Do you want me to try to get some diagnostics, or can it be regarded as a moot point as Intrepid arrives?

not sure intrepid will makes a difference but this bug is a collection of random similar issue and not something useful now, would be better to open a clear new bug if you still get the issue and can give details on the bug

I'm running Intrepid and I didn't have this issue anymore.
It looks like the priority of some routines have changed, for the login screen takes more time as usual (black screen, blinking cursor)

The broken network connection which occurred on a regular basis is fixed. See Bug #205374

Still I think it takes to much time for my fast machine to get ready. My two lesser machines boot way quicker!

closing this bug, gnome-settings-daemon is a different component now and the bug lists different issues, if somebody still get a similar bug on intrepid you should open a new bug describing exactly the error you are having