I have to log in twice

I asked about this on comp.os.linux.misc and didn't really find out anything.
Now that I think it might be a hardware problem, I'd like to try here.

I created a new account on my laptop running RH 7.2. When I log in with
that account, the userid and password are not rejected but, instead of
going into Gnome, an error message appears too quickly to read on a black
screen and then the login screen appears again and I have to log in again.
I sometimes have to log in three times before it works right.

I think this might be a hardware problem. What can I do to determine
whether that is the case?

In /var/log/messages, here is what happens when it rejects the login
(with the userid changed):

Sep 19 16:33:04 localhost gdm(pam_unix)[951]: session opened for user
syzygy by (uid=0)
Sep 19 16:33:04 localhost gdm[951]: gdm_slave_session_start: syzygy on :0
Sep 19 16:33:06 localhost gdm(pam_unix)[951]: session closed for user syzygy
Sep 19 16:33:06 localhost gdm[951]: gdm_auth_user_remove: /home/syzygy is
not owned by uid 0.
Sep 19 16:33:06 localhost gdm[951]: gdm_auth_user_remove: Ignoring
suspiciously looking cookie file /home/syzygy/.Xauthority

Here is what happens when it accepts the login:

Sep 19 16:33:09 localhost kernel: xircom cardbus adaptor found,
registering as eth0, using irq 11
Sep 19 16:33:09 localhost kernel: spurious 8259A interrupt: IRQ15.
Sep 19 16:33:17 localhost gdm(pam_unix)[1026]: session opened for
user syzygy by (uid=0)
Sep 19 16:33:17 localhost gdm[1026]: gdm_slave_session_start: syzygy on :0

The line about the xircom cardbus adaptor usually occurs as part of the normal
boot, followed by a lot of other stuff. It looks to me as though it is first
accepting the login, then immediately logging syzygy out and then repeating
whatever it did with the xircom cardbus adaptor during boot before accepting
the second attempt to log in.

Since gdm(pam_unix) is closing the session for syzygy, it presumably has a
reason. How can I find out what that reason might be? The message that
appears on the black screen too quickly to read: is there a way to freeze
it so I can read it or is there a way to cause it to be saved to a file?

Well, one thing I can try, just to hopefully separate the issue of the
xircom from the issue of logins, is to change the level from 5 to 3, so
that I log in in text mode. That might also cause the error message to
stick around if there still is one.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler <ara@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.
.

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