New to Ubuntu/Linux. In Startup Applications, changes are not saved; as soon as I close Startup Applications, settings revert to default. I've searched for answers (and tons of other questions on this site) but have yet to find a solution. Tried adding symbolic links to /etc/xdg/autostart, but it hasn't helped (though the symlinks did save there). 

Specifically, I want a desktop slideshow app to start automatically. Using applications GUI's to add to autostart also has not worked. I've tried Wallch, Variety, and Slidewall. Wallch and Slidewall GUI's showed that the programs were set to start with login, but they did not (I also made sure not to run them simultaneously to prevent conflict). The setting kept in the GUI, but it had no effect. When I enable that setting on Variety, the app crashes.

Found another question here that recommended using gnome-session-properties via terminal to edit it instead of launching Startup Apps from Dash, but this is was also ineffective. Terminal provided the following:

\*\* (gnome-session-properties:2319): WARNING \*\*: Could not save /home/jordan/.config/autostart/variety.desktop file

Logging out/restarting also had no effect.

I have also tried adding other apps to startup just to see if the problem was the apps I was using; all attempts have been equally unsuccessful.