I have seen something similar.
Mine is from a 10.7.2 NetInstaller (taken from the 10.7.2 version of the Install Mac OS X application). I needed a way to verify that the Restore Partition would be there to allow FileVault2 to work for my tests.
The grey login window loads, i type in credentials and it tries to load, and then it bounces back to loginwindow. It looks like it registers the authentication, but cannot load the user's launchd service (or something around that period)
Poking around the system, the plist for the user exists in /var/dslocal/nodes/Users, but they cannot be accessed. Reading online, it was recommended to use the Reset Password utility from the Apple Restore Partition and set up the root user. That did not work.
I am at a loss, and really not confident about being able to support a Lion deployment in the wild.
