On a fresh Gutsy install after 1 restart, gdm hangs after a completed (successful) login. The login will be performed, the login screen will disappear and the brownish gradient default desktop will show up. The login sound will be played, but no panels, desktop, or anything else will be loaded. It is possible to open a console terminal on all virtual terminals 1 - 6.
This problem does not show itself until the system has been up once normally and then restarted.
The problem shows itself even after purging xserver-xorg, gdm, and related packages, and even with another fresh install.
It also shows up regardless of whether compiz is enabled or the nvidia restricted drivers are in use. I have also tried installing the nvidia binary driver directly from the nvidia website, but this did not help anything.
The only thing that has seemed to work so far is dpkg-reconfigure'ing xserver-xorg, which allowed it to be opened once before going back to the problem. I used mostly defaults in the installation (only setting my resolutions and refresh rate). This does not work a second time around. The first time (when it did allow it to work once more), I was greeted with a messagebox notifying me that keyboard settings between gnome and xserver were inconsistent (pc105 vs. pc104, respectively), and asking if I would like to keep gnome settings. I chose to keep gnome settings over Xorg's settings. I have a slight thought that it may be the dialog woke it up from its slumber, and the reason it (reconfiguring) did not help further times was because gnome had already decided to keep its own settings and didn't prompt again.
Restarting into a recovery console and manually starting GDM (/etc/init.d/gdm start) works perfectly, including with compiz and binary nvidia drivers both from apt and the nvidia website.
Going to a console while GDM is frozen and attempting to run "sudo" results in the terminal freezing with no way of killing the command (including CTRL-C or killing it from another terminal). Running su and entering the root password (I have set it manually) works, however, and I can simply kill off the other terminal by killing the shell. Possibly gnome has frozen the authentication server? (I do not know much about this or how it works).
dmesg and the X log contain nothing of note (no difference between a working and non-working session).
Also, I've removed the fast user switching gnome plugin, which makes no difference (the panel plugin, at least).
Final note: Running uptime/top in one of the consoles while gnome is hung reveals a constantly growing load (up from around 1.7 initial, to up to about 12 when checked once. It does not jump or spike, it simply gradually goes up and settles).
It seems to be possibly related to a bug posted in a comment under bug #113067 by Rob Hughes
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/113067
Let me know if I need to clarify / add anything.
General Specs:
AMD Athlon X2 3800+ (@2.5GHz, but stable)
1GB RAM
A939 Motherboard (nForce4 chipset)
GeForce 6600PX video
2.6.22-14 Kernel (Generic)
CJ
I left it on tonight at the brownish screen gdm stops at for about 12 hours, and still nothing happened. I'm guessing this rules out it being related to bug #61711, which I originally expected not to be the problem anyways.
As a side note, when I start gdm from the recovery console, it pops up with a messagebox saying that the "HAL cannot be initialized!". Is it possible that this is the reason it works in the recovery console, that it pops up a messagebox again?