gconftool-2 evidently now uses DBUS variables that are not set if run from cron, some hoops must be jumped through to make it work. As a corollary to this, since a gnome session must be running to utilize gconftool-2 for said user running the program by having to ascertain the value of DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS for that session.

I propose modifying gconftool-2 such that it could be run as super user on behalf of another user. This would allow the su (eg, during an install script) to changes a user's settings without having to have that user's gnome session running.

Something like:

sudo gconftool-2 -u user1 -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename -t string pic.png

With thanks,
Narnie