Further investigation on what I was seeing showed this to be a race between X starting and the intel i915 graphics kernel module being loaded (because it's not built into the kernel).
-- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to lightdm in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1250875 Title: Lightdm sometimes fails to auto login Status in lightdm package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: Using ubuntu 14.04 and sometimes when I boot into ubuntu lightdm fails to auto login, and I must login manually in the unity greeter. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04 Package: lightdm 1.9.3-0ubuntu1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.12.0-2.7-generic 3.12.0 Uname: Linux 3.12.0-2-generic x86_64 NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia ApportVersion: 2.12.6-0ubuntu1 Architecture: amd64 Date: Wed Nov 13 14:33:18 2013 InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-10 (33 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Beta amd64 (20131008) MarkForUpload: True SourcePackage: lightdm UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2013-11-04 (9 days ago) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lightdm/+bug/1250875/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp