I don't know if this is normal or a sign of an internal issue. My symptoms are:

I cannot get the car into any gear when I first start up. It wants to grind when I try for reverse.
It will go into all gears when engine is off.
It will shift when driving. It feels sluggish. Once the car has moved into a forward gear, I can stop and get it into reverse with no grinding
I haven't put many miles on the car since owning it, but this is certainly a new condition
I have an engine conversion, so I am running a non DMC master and slave. They are new. I can hold the pedal down with a rod and verify that the fork is a full travel. I can also adjust the slave so that it over travelling.