dbus - autokey problem

[Dave Kimble]

Lubuntu 14.04 (64), dbus 1.6.18, libdbus-1-3 (1.6.18), autokey-gtk 0.90.4-1

I am trying to debug a situation where autokey-gtk launches and tries to 
connect to dbus and gets a warning that /tmp/dbus-* does not exist.  It 
then appears to proceed with a null string, (hex(00)) and then fails 
because hex(00) is not a valid UTF-8 character. "Error starting 
interface.  Keyboard monitoring will be disabled. Check your 
system/configuration."

The autokey people accept there may be a bug on their side, but can't 
help with why the connection fails/warns.

I suspect something is not right with the way my dbus is set up.
I have dbus-daemon (root) and dbus-daemon (user) and dbus-launch (user) 
running.
What diagnostic tests can I do on dbus?

Dave