[gdm-list] GDM almost completely freezes before selecting users.

[rburnes mcomi com]

Hello folks, I have a strange problem.Hours of log viewing, google
searching, and head banging, I can't figure out.
When I start up my machine, with GDM as the default display manager, it
takes a little longer than expected to load.
Then once it's loaded, the keyboard is unresponsive except for Ctrl +Alt +
bkspc or Ctrl+alt+Fkeys. I can move the mouse around, and it changes to
the text enter icon when I have it over the login box, but I can not
select the login box, or enter any characters into it, etc etc. Clicked
seems broken, however I can move it around without difficulty.
Restarting GDM doesn't fix it. Graphical greeter/normal greeter make no
difference.
Looking in the /var/log/syslog after I enabled debuging, gave me little.
It looks identical to a log on a running system, with the last line of the
log before it hangs and doesn't log anymore until I kill it being:

Sep 23 17:03:56 localhost gdm[10352]: gdm_slave_wait_for_login: In loop

I can post more of the log if that would help.
It actually works fine on my debian 2.6.12 custom kernel, gnome 2.10 gdm
2.8.0 -something, and only breaks when I try to run it from a LiveCD type
install (with the "cd" actually being another partition.) I believe the
problem to maybe be a UnionFS/GDM bug, though other people seem to have no
problem with it.

Any help would be ever so greatly appreciated with this, I've been banging
my head for a few days trying to figure it out..
Thank you so much, and I apologize for the long post.
-Raphael