Comment 2 for bug 438789

the problem seems to be related to a directory /var/lib/gdm/.gvfs:

root@xango2:/var/lib/gdm# ls -lai
ls: cannot access .gvfs: Permission denied
total 176
1527039 drwxr-x--- 17 gdm gdm 4096 2009-09-29 11:04 .
1523713 drwxr-xr-x 118 root root 4096 2009-09-29 11:07 ..
1573899 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .cache
1573968 drwx------ 4 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .config
1523754 -rw------- 1 root root 33 2009-09-29 10:59 .cookie
1573905 drwx------ 3 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .dbus
1523819 -rw------- 1 root root 16 2009-09-29 10:59 .esd_auth
1523733 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 63 2009-09-29 10:59 .fehbg
1523757 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2366 2009-09-29 10:59 .fehrc
1540358 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .fontconfig
1573909 drwx------ 4 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .gconf
1573964 drwx------ 2 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .gconfd
1574007 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .gconf.mandatory
1523771 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 276 2009-09-29 10:59 .gconf.path
1543602 drwx------ 2 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .gnome2
1543640 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .gstreamer-0.10
      ? d????????? ? ? ? ? ? .gvfs
1523791 -rw------- 1 root root 79558 2009-09-29 10:59 .ICEauthority
1574009 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .icons
1543600 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .local
1573992 drwx------ 2 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .pulse
1523736 -rw------- 1 root root 256 2009-09-29 10:59 .pulse-cookie
1523720 -rw------- 1 root root 218 2009-09-29 10:59 .recently-used.xbel
1574006 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .themes
1572888 drwx------ 4 root root 4096 2009-09-29 10:59 .thumbnails
root@xango2:/var/lib/gdm#

How it got there... I do not know.