Well, blowing away my entire ~/.gconf directory resolved this issue for me. I'd imagine it must be due to the fact that I changed some gnome- session setting in the past. I'm closing this as invalid as I can no longer reproduce this, but I do fear that this might be an issue for others. Particularly people that aren't comfortable dropping into a different tty.
** Changed in: unity Status: New => Invalid ** Changed in: unity (Ubuntu) Status: New => Invalid -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/761187 Title: unity does not start on login, can start from different tty -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs