I had the same problem, mainly when using Nxserver to connect to my computer remotely, and also from the second login on the computer without a reboot.
I had an error in my /etc/hosts file, I fixed it, but I was still having the problem. I discovered by accident that the problem was ESD. So if you go in the sound preferences and disable ESD, it may work again. I can't be sure at 100%, as it seems there are several reasons for this problem. But that was very clearly the reason for me, now I can login quickly no matter what. Hope it helps. -- gnome-settings-daemon crashes at login https://launchpad.net/bugs/61381 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs