Gnome desktop does not start

Is that a fresh installation ? Did you already log on this box successfully ? Do
you have a ~/.gnome2/session or ~/.gnome2/session-manual ?

(In reply to comment #1)
> Is that a fresh installation ? Did you already log on this box successfully ? Do
> you have a ~/.gnome2/session or ~/.gnome2/session-manual ?

It is a fresh installation of the machine and my home directory is local so that
no old Gnome files are present. The two files you mentioned above do not yet
exist after a few login attempts.

do you have something in ~/.xsession-errors ?

*** Bug 8598 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

(In reply to comment #3)
> do you have something in ~/.xsession-errors ?

Yes, the first four lines of that file are:

/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: Registering your session with wtmp and utmp
/etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: running: /usr/bin/X11/sessreg -a -w /var/log/wtmp
-u /var/run/utmp -x "/var/lib/gdm/:0.Xservers" -h "" -l ":0" "pleger"
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
SESSION_MANAGER=local/ls4com1:/tmp/.ICE-unix/5086

Then many lines with the following content are following:

/dev/dsp: No such file or directory

The last line is:

** (gnome-session:5086): WARNING **: Esound failed to start.

The machine does not have a sound device, causing the /dev/dsp and Esound errors.

(In reply to comment #4)
> *** Bug 8598 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I just looked at the description of that bug and tested the "workaround": Also
on my machine after killing bonobo-activation the desktop starts, but with errors.

I, too, get this error. Though it didn't start happening until I did a full
update after a fresh install. Is it possible that the patch to fix #1725 broken
this?

I don't have sound on the machine in question either.

This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 8678.