Shortly (seconds) after booting, the OS (10.6.8) becomes unresponsive. Not a single process can be created, but the window manager is responsive – I can switch focus between existing windows and some already loaded programs – e.g. Terminal, Finder, etc but I cannot run any new processes – opening a browser, or even executing "ls" from command prompt yields no results.
There are no obvious CPU hogs – I managed to quickly run "top -u" with no high CPU util at the point it gets stuck (at one point the top utility stops refreshing, I suspect it spawns a new process for each refresh).
Any clues appreciated.
Best Answer
After trial and error, the correct answer proved to be such: disable IPv6. The OSX machine started to freeze when I switched internet connection and WiFi router.