Hummm. I tried it the other way mentioned above by Ebnight by going into "settings", "CyanogenMod settings", "Lockscreen", then check "Disable lockscreen on Security". Then click on "Lockscreen settings" and checked "Menu unlock" and also "Disable unlock Slider". I also checked "Screen On animation" under "CyanogenMod', "Display Settings", "Screen-on Animation".
It's been sitting here on my desk for a few hours now, and when I think of it I pick it up, hit the power button, then the menu key, and it works every time.
I haven't tried the 3g yet, but I will soon when I head out in a bit.
One thing I did do is I never loaded the first version of this ROM. I nandroid backed-up my factory, rooted, oddball kernel version. Then i did a did a factory reset under cwm 4 and wiped /system for good measure. I loaded the current version on it and it booted right up. Got into market, downloaded Clockwork mod app, did a fix permissions and rebooted. I did not back up my settings with Google.
Still no problems, just checked just now. For an alpha ROM, this is amazing. I can live with the broken stuff for now. I'm pretty happy with it.
I hope this helps you some.