I have the same symptoms when using Xming to set up an XDMCP connection to my Ubuntu laptop on a local network. If I start up a VMWare Player with a LiveCD version of Ubuntu I can start a new login, press F10 and then log in to the laptop. Logging in to a Fedora station is no problem with Xming as well.
-- gnome-settings-daemon crashes at login https://launchpad.net/bugs/61381 -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs