Same here, with a NVidia 9600M. When failing, syslog shows Sep 23 08:58:49 gonzo kdm[1694]: X server startup timeout, terminatingSep 23 08:58:51 gonzo kdm[1694]: X server for display :0 cannot be started, session disabled
whereas X is starting just fine.Sometimes the machine starts just fast enough, and starts into kdm, and sometimes it is not. This leads to unpredictable behavior.