Comment 1 for bug 524761

Update:
I made another experimental installation with openbox only, and /etc/environment was read successfully. Then I removed all lxde elements from the main installation, with the exception of lxterminal, which does not depend on any other lxde files, plus my temporary 98environment script mentioned above. /etc/environment is now being read successfully in this installation as well.

Therefore, it seems to me that the source of the problem lies somewhere in the lxde libraries.