So, I just started using Linux 3 days ago, and while I was tech savy with windows (however hard that is), I find myself pretty lost now. Case and point:

I went out and bought a DWL-122 USB Wireless Adapter.

It's compatible with OS X, so I thought, I might have a shot.

I started searching around on the internet, and eventually found a thorough (though not enough for me, in the end) explaination of how to get it working.

Anway, the first part consisted of compiling your kernel afresh. I did this, restarted my computer, and now get the error "No write access to $HOME directory" when KDE tries to start up in Mandrake 9.2

julian.coccia.com/article-53.html

This is the guide I was using to try and set up my Adapter.

Any help, obviously appreciated.

I would try first of all seeing if HOME is set (set | grep HOME). If not, then you can probably get away with typing 'HOME=<your home directory>' (i.e. HOME=/home/foo)

If HOME is set then I'm not sure what's going on. Check the permissions on your home directory (ls -l /home).

Unfortunately, it's now gotten worse.

I haven't changed anything, but it now (I still can't predict when) crashes after I've selected my OS in my LILO boot (the bar fills up about 85% and then stops and freezes).

If I run failsafe it still works, however, that's not terribly useful as I don't know what to do when I get there.