Ubuntu 18.04 gets stuck on boot with Auto login enabled edit: now it happens regardless

If I enable auto login the system freezes on boot. I was able to determine that this was the cause by restoring to a clonezilla backup with Auto login disabled and as soon as I enable it the system will frezze upon the next boot. Now when I say freeze is more like it gets stuck on the boot Logo but if I press ESC and ctrl alt f4 before a certain point I can get into the console. I can technically get to the desktop as well by using the above method but with alt f2, but if I do this the mouse pointer moves but I can’t click on anything so I’m unable to go into the settings to disable Auto login. I have also tried modifying the gdm custom config file to have a delayed auto login and try to disable Auto login all together but it has no effect I think the Ubuntu setting overides it. Any ideas on how to get my computer working again? I do have a backup but I Rather leave that as a last resort.

EDIT: apparently I was able to unset auto login by editing the gdm file and it works now. So now my question would be why would this happen and how could I get auto login working?

What kind of hardware/computer might be relevant?

I’ve got a mysterious intermittent hang/freeze at login in 18.04 on an older Dell I7/hd4600 - will boot fine but often grey-screens when you click to login. However this does not happen if I choose to run wayland - so that’s the temporary solution for me if the error is persistent - though I don’t love it as I get a weird mouse hesitation bug with it running. So mostly I just try not to reboot and/or give it a couple tries when I do. Tried full wipe of ssd and fresh install to no avail. Probably will just upgrade or switch distros at some point soon - haven’t yet because I have a piece of software on it I need for work that isn’t widely supported beyond .deb (or ahem, windows); involves a database already built, so it’s a pita. Cent OS is supported as the program is often run on a server so maybe I’ll try that if I get around to it.

Anyway, your problem may not be related, but maybe worth a try if it hangs on you again, or you want to test the auto login that way.

zany130@andres-X470-AORUS-ULTRA-GAMING
OS: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic
Kernel: x86_64 Linux 5.0.17-050017-generic
Uptime: 37m
Packages: 4541
Shell: bash 4.4.19
Resolution: 2560x1080
DE: GNOME
WM: GNOME Shell
WM Theme: Arc-Dark
GTK Theme: Arc-Dark [GTK2/3]
Icon Theme: Paper
Font: Roboto 11
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Eight-Core @ 16x 3.7GHz [49.5°C]
GPU: GeForce GTX 1080
RAM: 8686MiB / 16048MiB
These are my specs I still haven’t resolved this and I think my issues is different as the computer will run fine show the boot Logo but then just get stuck there no login screen or nothing ,even if I set Auto login to a timer , however.now this issue came back after I restored with timeshift and now it does it regardless of whether Auto boot is on or not.