I did a "sudo strace -olog.txt gdmsetup" and attached the file here. The last line, where it hangs, is this one: futex(0x8130458, FUTEX_WAIT, 2, NULL) Hope that helps a little... ** Attachment added: "strace log file" http://librarian.launchpad.net/5505366/log.txt -- gdmsetup fails to start https://launchpad.net/bugs/76693