For the record: I filed a bug report on bugzilla.gnome.org reporting the problem - hopefully it will yield some result:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=637921 ** Bug watch added: GNOME Bug Tracker #637921 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=637921 -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/588155 Title: randomly gnome-settings-daemon fails to start -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs