sshd fails to start in a desktop config (destop03.scm, attached)

The shepherd.log contains (full log attached) ...

g1@g1 ~/bug/sshtoXFCE/log$ grep could shepherd.log
2018-02-26 18:07:47 Service user-homes could not be started.
2018-02-26 18:07:48 Service term-auto could not be started.
2018-02-26 18:07:58 Service ssh-daemon could not be started.

I attempted to start it manually ...

root@desktop03 /gnu/store# sshd -D -f /gnu/store/ky9d1r3kj7yv6sbf8cjp23ym95lc5kss-sshd_config
sshd re-exec requires execution with an absolute path

root@desktop03 /gnu/store# sshd -d -f /gnu/store/ky9d1r3kj7yv6sbf8cjp23ym95lc5kss-sshd_config
sshd re-exec requires execution with an absolute path

root@desktop03 /gnu/store# cat /gnu/store/ky9d1r3kj7yv6sbf8cjp23ym95lc5kss-sshd_config
# Generated by 'openssh-service'.
Port 22
PermitRootLogin yes
PermitEmptyPasswords no
PasswordAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes
X11Forwarding yes
PidFile /var/run/sshd.pid
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no
UsePAM yes
PrintLastLog yes
AuthorizedKeysFile  .ssh/authorized_keys .ssh/authorized_keys2 /etc/ssh/authorized_keys.d/%u
Subsystem	sftp	internal-sftp
root@desktop03 /gnu/store# 

The vm was created by ...

guix system vm-image -M 4 -c 4 --image-size=5GB \
/home/g1/www/vm/vms/desktop03/desktop03.scm

... and run by ...

sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -name desktop03 -net \
tap,ifname=desktop03,script=/home/g1/www/vm/qemu-ifup,downscript=/home/g1/www/vm/qemu-ifdn \
-net nic,model=virtio,macaddr=DE:AD:BE:EF:3A:8E -enable-kvm -m 5120 -k \
en-us -vga qxl -spice addr=127.0.0.1,port=3001,disable-ticketing -device \
virtio-serial -chardev spicevmc,id=vdagent,debug=0,name=vdagent -device \
virtserialport,chardev=vdagent,name=com.redhat.spice.0 -daemonize \
/home/g1/www/vm/vms/desktop03/vm.img

TIA - George