Login failure on FC4

[don fisher <dfisher as arizona edu>]

I have installed FC4 on my Dell P4 laptop. All went smoothly until I 
tried to load a kernel I compiled myself. I have a 2.6.11 kernel that 
functioned correctly under FC3 after I applied the udev patch to allow 
my console to exist.

I also have a 2.6.12.2 kernel. Both have initrd files. When I attempt 
to log in from the console I am allowed to enter my user name and 
password. As soon as I enter return for the password I am returned to 
the login prompt. This also occurs when root attempts to log in. If I 
boot the kernel that came with the FC4 distribution the login is 
successful.

The entries from 2.6.12.2 that contain my name from /var/log/messages are:

1. su(pam_unix)[6674]: session opened for user dfisher by dfisher(uid=0)
2. kernel: [ 1094.829499] mtrr: type mismatch for c0000000,8000000 
old: uncachable new: write-combining
3. su(pam_unix)[8072]: session opened for user root by dfisher(uid=239)

Under RedHats FC4 kernel:
1. gconfd (dfisher-6896): starting (version 2.8.1), pid 6896 user 
'dfisher'
2. gconfd (dfisher-6896): Resolved address 
"xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read-only 
configuration source at position 0
3. gconfd (dfisher-6896): Resolved address 
"xml:readwrite:/home/dfisher/.gconf" to a writable configuration 
source at position 1
4. gconfd (dfisher-6896): Resolved address 
"xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only 
configuration source at position 2

I do not understand why gconfd is operating under the FC4 kernel and 
not my own. But I obviously do not know the details.

Any help would be appreciated. Life was so simple in the insecure days 
before pam, ssh,... made system management a security task.

don