"semi-session" with Xquartz

[Jean-François Dagenais]

Hi all,

Looking for some help for a special scenario...

I'm a mac user. I like the basic apps in Mac OS X. I develop linux software. I
am trying to get the best of both worlds. My development is hosted on a decent
workstation, while I want to use my old macbook pro as a terminal.

I run Xquartz ( and thus xquartz-wm) on the mac. I established ssh X11
forwarding ( or NX or xauth cookie) correctly. I want to get an xfce session
going, but certain features are unwanted and/or disturbing.

Using Xubuntu (Oneiric), my current approach is to just invoke "xfce-session". I
then went into the settings manager and disabled a few things in the session
startup. The current annoyances are that xfdesktop always launches. I fixed it
by replacing xfdesktop with a dummy bash script which sleeps. Also, I don't have
management of USB devices and administrative (policykit) things like the update
manager don't always work properly.

At least xfwm4 realizes xquartz-wm is managing my windows and quits with a
warning without further interfering.

So specific questions: - how do I completely prevent xfdesktop from being
started?  - what do I launch to get my USB stuff going correctly (auto appears
in thunar)?  - what's missing so policykit things run smooth?

Thanks in advance for tips and hints! 
Cheers!
/jfd