Hi,
Odd that it took so long to display, that along with the cog being misisng; could be indicator of deeper problems with your setup. Either software or hardware. I would start with a file system check:
touch /forcefsck
Reboot. More details can be found here: How to Use 'fsck' to Repair File System Errors in Linux
Actually I was expecting an XSession entry, but for it to be blank. I think the system default is set by a config file in /etc.
Anyway I glad to here you can now login in to gnome-classic? Just out if interest is the cog now visible on the login screen?
Thanks Tom.