ESD seems to cause the problem. Deactivating it in the audio preferences makes GNOME start normally. Reactivating it makes GNOME stop reacting for some minutes. After that the error message about the esound-socket reappears in .xsession-errors.
-- GNOME session hangs after login https://launchpad.net/bugs/89022 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
