Comment 6 for bug 23445

I also have the same symptoms. I have an iMac G5 20" 2Ghz.

After some search/tries I discovered that the freeze occurs when a sound is
played (or tried to). It is the case when gdm is started. It is also the case on
the console if you use Tab for the completion and the shell wants to beep.

I found a work-around for now:

 * boot using "Linux single" so gdm is not started
 * do not use tab on the console
 * disable sound in gdm by setting

SoundProgram=/bin/true
#SoundOnLogin=true

I can now log in :-)