Ubuntu
gconf2 package

  1. Bug #328575
  2. Comment #84

Comment 84 for bug 328575

Revision history for this message
Peter Cordes (peter-cordes) wrote : Re: Cannot start gnome-terminal because of gconf error

> The main purpose of this message is to point out that this is NOT just a su issue.

 Right, it's an X11-without-gconf issue. See my post, above, for my workaround for fluxbox. Like you, I use fluxbox and gnome-terminal. It's a simple matter of getting gconf running. I do it by running gnome-settings-daemon in my .fluxbox/startup. (startx does start DBUS, so gnome stuff can find itself once started.)

BTW, ctrl-alt-f1 is not the simplest way. There are other viable terminal emulators you can start from the menu: Applications->Terminal Emulators->anything but gnome terminal. If you don't have any others installed,
aptitude install xterm
It's not very nice, but it works well as a failsafe.

 Or start any other GUI program that lets you run shell commands. e.g. emacs, and M-x shell.
(and start gnome-settings-daemon that way.)