Missing gconf values on new system

[David A. Cobb]

Just installed from Dapper CD, might as well call it a virgin install 
because I trashed my old /home.

GDM startup acts very very strange:
+ the login graphics vanish, leaving me with a gray screen with only the 
username box visible,
+ the X cursor doesn't go away.

This looks like I have two display managers fighting over my display!

If and when I finally get running, my '.xsession-errors' contains these 
complaints:
<QUOTE>
SESSION_MANAGER=local/BiskitServer1:/tmp/.ICE-unix/6476
Window manager warning: 0 stored in GConf key 
/desktop/gnome/peripherals/mouse/cursor_size is not a reasonable 
cursor_size; must be in the range 1..128
Gnome-Message: gnome_execute_async_with_env_fds: returning -1

(gnome-panel:6809): GdkPixbuf-CRITICAL **: gdk_pixbuf_scale_simple: 
assertion `dest_width > 0' failed
Initializing nautilus-open-terminal extension
</QUOTE>

Originally, it also had a complaint about the 
/apt/metacity/.../num_workspaces.  That went away after I played a bit 
with the workspace selector prefs.  But I'm not sure what pref would be 
cursor size.  Equally, I don't know what would cause certain defaults to 
be missing.