login error caused by apt-get
 

OK my system is libranet (100% debian compliant)

i recently ran apt-get (using synaptic) to get all my updates (first time this year). after it had finished everything seemed fine except a couple of programmes didn't run properly so i figured (i have mainly used windows in the past) i'd reboot the computer, perhaps something has been updated and needs to be restarted to work properly.

now when i try to log in as myself i get an error message appear saying that i was only logged in for < 10 seconds and that this was probably caused by an error. It then instructs me to check my "~/xsession-error" file (which i am unable to find.

I can log in as root using GDM and any window manager. and i am able to log in at the command prompt as myself and root, but i am unable to log in to the GUI as myself without the above error.

this is what i get from the console when trying to check with apt-get:
root@amon1:~# apt-get -check
E: Opening configuration file heck - ifstream::ifstream (2 No such file or directory)

thanks in advance for your help. i'm a bit of a n00b but have been learning for a year now :S so I probably don't have much of an excuse for still describing myself as a n00b.

It looks like you messed up your x config file. At the GRUB prompt, type kernelname 2. That will boot into the cli, instead of gdm. Then you can reconfigure your x from xf86/xorgconfig file. Also, you can't find your xsession-error file. Try running this command: 'less ~/.xsession-errors'

OK i tried both those things. sadly there is still no change.

the xsession-errors file gave me this:
root@amon1:~# more ~/.xsession-errors
/etc/gdm/PreSession//Default: Registering your session with wtmp and utmp
/etc/gdm/PreSession//Default: running: sessreg -a -w /var/log/wtmp -u /var/run/utmp -x "/var/lib/gdm/:0.Xservers" -h "" -l :0 root

if that is any help. i wonder if it is something to do with permissions, one thing that i think was updated was something to do with passwords. as i am able to use x normally as root which is how i am able to access LQ in firefox)

i have also tried creaiting a new user to see if it is something to do with the individual user settings. the new user was unable to log into the system (same as y normal account)

Solution Found
 

I have included this for anyone else with the same problem.

the problem was cxaused by the hard disk being full. the problem was solved by running:
apt-get autoclean

or in some cases this may work better:
apt-get clean

and now the computer is working fine :)

i found out that the hard disk was full wen i tried to copy a file to the /root directory and it said not enough disk space. i then double checked with:
df -h
which displays how much disk space there is on all your hard disks and partitions