Within the last couple of weeks, any attempt to login to a specific linux server has gotten really slow. Once I've logged in, things appear to run without significant delay, but some other login like activities (like starting a new screen session) are slow.

The machine's been rebooted a couple of times recently and that hasn't helped. , and it doesn't appear to be $PATH search (where $PATH can sometimes include bad NFS mounts), which I've seen historically in our environment. I've also tried completely removing my .profile/.bash*/... type of init files to rule out anything bad there. I also see slow login for at least one other userid on the system.

One thing I've noticed is the following message when trying to exit from a screen terminal:

Utmp slot not found -> not removed

and am wondering if this is related (having a vague recollection that Utmp has something to do with login).

Any idea what that message means, or how to fix it, and if it would be related? Failing that, what sort of problem determination tools are available to investigate what is slowing down this login process?