Problems logging in
 

I have a machine running Redhat Linux, which has been fine (but unused) for a few weeks. I have just shut down the machine to move it, and re-powered it up. Everything is fine to the login screen, but logging in (either as root or as a normal user), it takes an AGE!!! to run through the login process and present me with the workspace. By an age, I mean well over a minute. Before, it only took seconds.

Can anybody help me track down why it is suddenly taking so long?

I thought it was just fsck performing a filesystem check but after rereading your problem it couldn't of been.

Look at the top or the output of ps ax to see what processes are running.

I'm not sure that I'd know if it was ext3 or not, but I can tell you that I've tried rebooting it a few times without success.

I wondered whether it was network-related, but I've tried firing up Mozilla and everything web-wise works fine (and fast), so I don't think it is.

There's very little running on the machine at all - nothing occupying more than 0.3% of memory or more than a couple of meg of RAM.