I'am not sure if my problem was the same as the OP but I tried Ubuntu on a new blank hard drive from a CD, and it loaded fine. Then I wanted to shutdown the computer and chose 'suspend' instead of shutdown, to come back at it later. When I turned it back on, there was a window on the empty desktop picture asking for a username and password. I had access only to the top right icons, but selecting shutdown would not work. Not being able to logon I ended up here, and as Forestpiskie suggested:
username: ubuntu
password: blank
and it loaded perfectly. Thanks!
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