xset not working on session start

[Atom Smasher]

i've googled and found a bunch of posts about this, but no solutions. if i 
put some `xset` commands in my configuration files they don't work 
consistently. most of the time they don't work at all.

relevant section of my init files, currently ~/.xsession and 
~/.e16/Start/xset.sh

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

echo '========'
xset q
echo '========'

xset b 100 440 101 && echo 'bell set'
xset m 4/1 8  && echo 'mouse set'
xset dpms 0 0 0 && echo 'dpms set'

echo '========'
xset q
echo '========'

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

i've also tried it all on one line:
 	xset b 100 440 101 m 4/1 8 dpms 0 0 0

right now those commands are in both my ~/.xsession and 
~/.e16/Start/xset.sh files. i had similar (bad) luck with ~/.xinitrc and 
startx.

here's the relevant section of ~/.xsession-errors, edited for brevity:


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
========
<<snip>>
   bell percent:  50    bell pitch:  400    bell duration:  100
Pointer Control:
   acceleration:  2/1    threshold:  4
<<snip>>
DPMS (Energy Star):
   Standby: 0    Suspend: 0    Off: 1200
========
bell set
mouse set
dpms set
========
<<snip>>
   bell percent:  100    bell pitch:  440    bell duration:  101
Pointer Control:
   acceleration:  4/1    threshold:  8
<<snip>>
DPMS (Energy Star):
   Standby: 0    Suspend: 0    Off: 0
========
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


the xset commands are successfully executed, first from ~/.xsession then 
by ~/.e16/Start/xset.sh. when i open a terminal and type 'xset q' i 
*usually* don't see the settings i want.

i tried adding:
 	xterm -e 'sleep 4 ; xset q ; cat' &
to the config files, and *usually* saw the wrong settings. if i left out 
the sleep command i always saw the correct settings, even if they reverted 
to the wrong settings a few seconds later.

if i copy and paste the xset command(s) in an interactive shell, it seems 
to work as expected every time.

something's going wrong with this. most of the archive postings (in 
different forums) blame the user, often citing confusion between .xinitrc 
and .xsession, then falling back on either "you must be doing something 
wrong" or "i'll just do it from the command line." i think i've documented 
this enough that it can be duplicated, and maybe some progress can be made 
from here.

in the meantime, if anyone knows another way to set these things....

thanks...


-- 
         ...atom

  ________________________
  http://atom.smasher.org/
  762A 3B98 A3C3 96C9 C6B7 582A B88D 52E4 D9F5 7808
  -------------------------------------------------

 	"I made a pilgrimage to save this human race
 	 Never comprehending the race that's long gone by"
 		-- Modern English