Here's an update to comment #146:
Having suggested enabling the "login automatically" feature I went back
to actually try it. A-Ha it never failed; and then again; now; logging
in ASAP after boot never failed either. Obviously I'd made a change
along the line that had "fixed" my system.
After
I would like to propose a test case:
I am affected by this bug but have discovered that if at the login screen, I
delay a minute or so before logging in, the menus appear normally. However if I
do not delay logging in; the menus never appear.
I don't have specific timing details, but delaying
