gnome-settings manager freezes system on login

Binary package hint: gnome-settings-daemon

When I first logged in, I started up firefox and it began loading the pages from the previous session, then froze. I could see the CPU usage was well over 50%, but looking in top no process was using more than 2%; instead, I was seeing about 75% I/O wait.

Checking iotop, I could see gnome-settings-daemon reading around 2MB/second for at least 30 seconds, while no other process was accessing the disk. So it must be responsible for blowing all my CPU time on I/O waits.

I don't even know what this program does, but this has happened fairly often on logins since installing Lucid and it makes the experience almost as bad as logging into Windows; my CentOS machine, for example, is usable about ten seconds after I log in.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: gnome-settings-daemon 2.30.1-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.36-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Jun 22 19:37:17 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_CA.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-settings-daemon
XsessionErrors:
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2412): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (gnome-terminal:3303): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_accel_map_unlock_path: assertion `entry != NULL && entry->lock_count > 0' failed