Bug 185112

Hans, you can run gnome-session-save to save the current session.
I don't know whats up with the check box, though. 

Upstream bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=330500

Matthis, thanks for the hint. I think it would be nice if there was a menu entry
for this somewhere, maybe under a save session entry under the preferences menu?

(In reply to comment #2)
> Upstream bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=330500
Hmm, not related to this bug, I would think.

In System->Preferences->More Preferences->Sessions you can set "Automatically
save changes to session". According to the help text this will perform the
session save without prompt. However, it also states that if this option is NOT
set then a prompt at logout will ask whether to save the session or not.

This prompt never happens and I believe that this is the real bug.

(In reply to comment #4)
It's related, but only because of interpretation issues.  Some people are
interpreting session options->Ask on Logout to mean "Ask me if I want to log
out" when checked and "Log out immediately without confirmation dialog" if
unchecked, where as the people in this bug report are still interpreting this
based upon the old, established behavior which was "Ask me if I want to save my
session state on the logout/shutdown dialog" when checked or "Don't clutter up
the logout/shutdown dialog" when unchecked.  Upstream could make the issue a
little more clear by doing something like:

Save Session:
  ( )  Automatically on logout/shutdown
  ( )  Ask me on logout/shutdown
  ( )  Never

in the save session dialog box.  That would make the usage/intent of the "Ask on
logout" option clear.  Then to make the people in the upstream bug report happy,
they could do a different option, say "Confirm logout/shutdown?" for having a
confirmation dialog at all.

Note, this bug still applies to Fedora Core 6 Test 2.

So we don't use the logout dialog in gnome-session anymore.  We use one from the
panel.

Soeren is going to commit some changes at some point to 

1) get rid of the first two tabs in gnome-session-properties
2) get rid of the ctrl-alt-delete patch to metacity to make the gnome-session
dialog pop up
3) flip some gconf schema defaults such that the dialog never pops up  (even if
you do gnome-session-save --kill)

I am not convinced that removing the first 2 tab is a good idea.

The second tab should be merged into gnome-system-monitor.

Multiple session support was an interesting idea that never really worked right.

This sounds like a good plan, that would also allow us to fix some issues in
gnome-system-monitor, like ending gnome-panel, only to see it come back immediately

*** Bug 191526 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Well, the problem still persists in FC6 release (as in FC5). I simply am not
able to save a default session state that opens a couple of gnome-terminals at
certain places without using the "auto-save session" option. If I do use this
auto-save option it works, but as soon as I disable the auto-saving again, the
session is hosed.

Effectively this problem prevents me from upgrading from FC4 to FC6 (and earlier
to FC5) on my desktop and laptop - I need a consistent startup session (so
cannot keep auto-save enabled).

Although those issues seem to be two different ones, they might have a common
root cause - I'm not into GNOME session management. I just want to a save a
startup desktop setup with a couple of gnome-terminals opening in the right
positions and dimensions.

Any clues when we'll get this fixed?

Best regards,
Daniel

Can you uncheck "Auto save session", create the configuration you want,
press alt-f2, type gnome-session-save (press enter)?

I realize this is a workaround...

Thanks Ray, this workaround works for me.

Now searching for a brightside replacement which enables me to switch desktops
by pushing the mouse pointer against the desktop edges. :-)

the session preferences capplet now has a "Save current session" button.