GNOME Session hanging on login

[Link Dupont <link@subpop.net>]

Hello all,
I've asked a few times in #gnome-debian about this but not gotten any
response, so I thought I'd take it to the list.
Here is a screenshot of my problem:
http://files.subpop.net/screenshots/Bug_gnome-session-wait-status.png

Here is a description:
When I log in, the splash screen displays starting apps like normal. The
entire desktop is loaded, but the splash screen hangs around.
Consequently, no gnome-session related activity works, as gnome-session
is busy.
The splash screen is only present on the first workspace.
I can make it go away by clicking on the clock applet (and pulling down
the calendar) and by right-clicking on the weatherapp and opening
preferences. This makes the icon change from the clock to the gear.
I've tried tweaking my gnome session (starting the applets after the
panel, etc) but no good.
Does anyone even know what that little clock icon means?

How might we go about debugging this? I've tried different users. Any
user with the clock it happens to.

Relavent package versions:
gnome-session  2.6.1-5
gnome-panel    2.6.1-4
gnome-applets  2.6.1-4

This is on a unstable/experimental GNOME 2.6 (mostly unstable i think at
this point) machine. The clock applet is _not_ compiled against e-d-s.

Thanks, Link
-- 
Link Dupont                                   mail: link@subpop.net
http://www.subpop.net                          jab: link@jabber.org