There are other bug reports somehow connected to this issue, but I'll post here since this is still open.

I have 9.10 in two machines and in one of them this issue shows up.

The one that works fine is a MacBook2,1 with 2GB of RAM and 9.10 64bits. The other is a desktop with 6GB of RAM, also running 9.10 64 bits. Both have the same related libs versions (I'll confirm that later).

The backtrace from nautilus when it hangs is the following:

#0  __lll_lock_wait () at ../nptl/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/x86_64/lowlevellock.S:136
#1  0x00007ffff6933295 in _L_lock_949 () from /lib/libpthread.so.0
#2  0x00007ffff69330b8 in __pthread_mutex_lock (mutex=0x7ffff5c4a488) at pthread_mutex_lock.c:61
#3  0x00007ffff5a36555 in _gdk_pixbuf_lock (image_module=<value optimized out>) at /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.3/gdk-pixbuf/gdk-pixbuf-io.c:119
#4  0x00007ffff5a39df5 in gdk_pixbuf_loader_load_module (loader=0x10a5220, image_type=<value optimized out>, error=0x0)
    at /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.3/gdk-pixbuf/gdk-pixbuf-loader.c:379
#5  0x00007ffff5a3a8c3 in gdk_pixbuf_loader_eat_header_write (loader=0x10a5220, 
    buf=0x7fffd83c9010 "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"no\"?>\n<!-- Created with Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/) -->\n\n<svg\n   xmlns:i=\"http://ns.adobe.com/AdobeIllustrator/10.0/\"\n   xmlns:dc=\"http://purl."..., count=579848, error=0x0)
    at /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.3/gdk-pixbuf/gdk-pixbuf-loader.c:417
#6  IA__gdk_pixbuf_loader_write (loader=0x10a5220, 
    buf=0x7fffd83c9010 "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"no\"?>\n<!-- Created with Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/) -->\n\n<svg\n   xmlns:i=\"http://ns.adobe.com/AdobeIllustrator/10.0/\"\n   xmlns:dc=\"http://purl."..., count=579848, error=0x0)
    at /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.3/gdk-pixbuf/gdk-pixbuf-loader.c:463
#7  0x00000000004b3c29 in get_pixbuf_for_content (source_object=<value optimized out>, res=<value optimized out>, user_data=<value optimized out>)
    at nautilus-directory-async.c:3886
#8  thumbnail_read_callback (source_object=<value optimized out>, res=<value optimized out>, user_data=<value optimized out>)
    at nautilus-directory-async.c:3937
#9  0x00007ffff57ae89f in load_contents_close_callback (obj=<value optimized out>, close_res=<value optimized out>, user_data=0x1243f70)
    at /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.22.3/gio/gfile.c:6142
#10 0x00007ffff57c6be0 in async_ready_close_callback_wrapper (source_object=0xe71860, res=0xe718c0, user_data=0x1243f70)
    at /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.22.3/gio/ginputstream.c:485
#11 0x00007ffff57d4b28 in complete_in_idle_cb_for_thread (_data=<value optimized out>) at /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.22.3/gio/gsimpleasyncresult.c:650
#12 0x00007ffff49a5bce in g_main_dispatch (context=0x7fee80) at /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.22.3/glib/gmain.c:1960
#13 IA__g_main_context_dispatch (context=0x7fee80) at /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.22.3/glib/gmain.c:2513
#14 0x00007ffff49a9598 in g_main_context_iterate (context=0x7fee80, block=<value optimized out>, dispatch=<value optimized out>, self=<value optimized out>)
    at /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.22.3/glib/gmain.c:2591
#15 0x00007ffff49a99f5 in IA__g_main_loop_run (loop=0xdc32b0) at /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.22.3/glib/gmain.c:2799
#16 0x00007ffff6252177 in IA__gtk_main () at /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.3/gtk/gtkmain.c:1218
#17 0x0000000000443947 in main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe3c8) at nautilus-main.c:588

It hangs sometimes when scrolling the file list, changing zoom, opening preferences for the file that causes the hang, etc. I tried to clean up the thumbnails first and it would hang in that file again. I then created a new home folder to have the configuration files clean, and still get the freeze.

The svg file in question has various linked bitmaps inside.