gnome-session question

[Brad Hilton <grpmind groupmind vpop net>]

Hello,

I have seen quite a few postings about gnome-session recently, so
perhaps this is still a work in progress.  However, I have been having
some troubles which I thought someone might have found an answer for.

I would like to use gnome-session through .xinitrc, even to start up my
window manager for me.  This works fine, however if I start any
applications through gnome (ie, from the panel, or the main menu)
everything hangs.

This behavior goes away if I background gnome-session in .xinitrc, and
then follow it up with something else (xterm, for example).  It seems
that in general, gnome applications like to be backgrounded to behave
properly.  Is this true?

For example, if my .xinitrc contains:

gnome-session &
enlightenment

everything works perfectly, but gnome-session has no control over my
window manager, and doesn't remember the state of things when I log out
(I have to logout through enlightenment with this setup).

Am I missing something simple here, or has anyone found a solution to
this problem; namely: 

gnome-session must be backgrounded to behave properly, but if it is
backgrounded it no longer has complete control over the X session.

Thanks,
-Brad