I don't know how to keep this short. (newbie here)

I have been multi-booting XP-Mandriva-Debian. Then tried installing Slackware, which has been a 3 day nightmare. Now I am unable to boot after re-installing Debian.

Twice I have used a Live CD to reformat all my Linux partitions, then booted to my XP install disc and did “fixmbr”. The last go a around I installed Mandriva 1st. Was able to boot up fine. Then installed Debian, so have XP-Mandriva-Debian. Now can not boot without errors.

First error:
Users home/:dmrc file is being ignored. This prevents the default session and language from being saved. File should be owned by user and have 644 permissions. User home directory must be owned by user and not writable by other users.

Second error:
Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds......
/etc/gdm/presession default: registering...
/etc/gdm/presession default: running /usr/bin/sessreg
/etc/gdm/Xsession:beginning session startup
Could not set mode 0700 on private per-user gnome configuration

Now this last error I have been getting ever since I was able to finally get Slackware installed, through 3 clean installations of Debian.

1.After wiping everything and installing Mandriva I was OK. Could boot fine to Mandriva.
2.As soon as I got Debian installed again, I was out of luck. Neither Linux distro would boot. Getting the same two errors (or very similar errors) from both Mandriva and Debian.

I like Debian, and I want Debian back!

Is there something wrong with my Debian installer? I did not download the DVD ISO. I downloaded the Debian installer.

I don't mind starting over again, I have not done anything with either distro that I can't wipe. Can't figure out why this problem keep coming back after I wipe everything.

Can anyone help?

Thank You

I got the same error message and could not dual boot into Debian a few days ago when my Home directory "got corrupted" and could not be mounted because of a power failure followed by power supply damage on my PC followed by a bad set up of my hard disks. Fixing the hard disk settings brought back Debian. But of course, your problem is different.

I'm not here with any solution to your problem. But might I suggest--since you said you "don't mind starting over again"--using a Debian CD/DVD ISO instead of the Debian installer? I don't remember where but I read somewhere someone saying the installer has got some issues.

I'm also looking forward to seeing if others come up with a solution to your problem.

Were you trying to share a home directory between the different versions of Linux?

I suspect the reason that you can't boot either Linux is that the grub scripts screwed up when you installed Debian; try booting from a live CD and reinstalling GRUB, but make sure YOU set the 'map' file before invoking GRUB. Maybe it's just my luck, but for me the grub-install script fails 80% of the time so I prefer to get dirty and use 'grub' itself to install - no scripts guessing things wrong then.

Yes I was.

I doubt I know enough to reinstall GRUB, and write everything correctly. I will have to do some reading to see if I can figure it out.

Can I reinstall GRUB with synaptic if I am using a live CD? I have a Super GRUB Disk, but don't know how to use it effectively yet.

I imagine I will also download the full DVD ISO file for Debian.

Thanks for the responses.

Well I wiped everything again, and installed Debian dual booting with XP, and so far no problems.

I guess now I will try Mandriva and see what happens.