Okay... How about this fix for /etc/profile.d/openssh-dbus.sh if test -n "$SSH_CONNECTION" -a -n "$DISPLAY" then export SAVE_DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS dbus-update-activation-environment --systemd --all DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=$SAVE_DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS unset SAVE_DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS fi Seems to work for both the local X11 user and the ssh -X user (why am I the only one complaining about this? Perhaps I should have waited until someone else noticed the problem. Oh well...)