Desktop does not start - Drops into shell at boot

I have a laptop IBM R50e. A clean install using 10.04.1 has been done, and all updates have been loaded.
At boot, the system does not start the desktop. It tries and drops into the shell. I have started the recovery boot, and tried failsafeX start, but it only returns into the shell.
The boot parameter i915.modeset=1 has been set. There are a number of issues with the Intel graphics card and 10.04, I have been through those without success.
The modeset makes it possible to start some graphical environmrnt using xinit or startx. startx starts gnome, but lot of functionality is missing, like the network applet. Additionally I notice that there is no file /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket, which my other laptop has when in gnome.

Started gdm when being in the graphical shell through xinit, gives the error message that /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket is missing.