dbus-1.2.3 and gnome-settings-daemon-2.24.1

[walt]

A few of us using gentoo-unstable/testing are having trouble with gsd not
starting properly unless we use 'dbus-launch gnome-session'.

At startup gnome-session prints
  dbus_g_proxy_add_signal: assertion DBUS_IS_G_PROXY failed.

The only place the gsm code does that is in gsd_spawn() at gsm-gsd.c
line 228:
  dbus_g_proxy_connect_signal (dbus_service,
                               "NameOwnerChanged",
                               G_CALLBACK (name_owner_changed),
                               &gsd,
                               NULL);
and line 250:
  dbus_g_proxy_add_signal (gsd.dbus_proxy,
                               "PluginActivated",
                               G_TYPE_STRING,
                               G_TYPE_INVALID);

I'm new to dbus so I don't know how to proceed from here.  Any clues
would be most welcome.

BTW, is using dbus-launch gnome-session the normal and necessary way
to start gnome?

Thanks!