I got code from bzr and built with --enable-dbus-api. In /usr/share/dbus-1/services, I added org.inkscape.service: [D-BUS Service] Name=org.inkscape Exec=/usr/bin/inkscape Code like import dbus bus = dbus.SessionBus() inkdoc1 = bus.get_object('org.inkscape', '/org/inkscape/desktop_0') causes inkscape to start via dbus, but the bus.get_object doesn't succeed. I get an error from DBus: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner: Could not get owner of name 'org.inkscape': no such name What else do I need to do?