Debian8.6 Install Failure: Can't login to any Desktop

[mr.Lauren]

I have been trying for several days to install Debian8.6 on a computer with an ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO mother board with 4GB of RAM. It has 3 HD's: a 40G IDE; 160G IDE; and a 500G SATA. Deb8.6 is being installed on the 500G. I'm having no success, and I'm hoping someone can help.

During my work on creating partitions, I set up 2 partitions of type ext4. The / partition is 30 GB, and the /home is nearly 100 GB. My user files come from MEPIS /home, type ext3.

Note that in the beginning I made, what I soon realized, was the big error of not starting with my User files loaded in Deb /home! I am glad I did, however, because the first time I installed, it was a success, so obviously it can work. That in spite of the fact that I put in the NVIDIA Graphics board that I've never been able to install. I reasoned that, starting from scratch, the installer would automatically set up the config files. The Installer locked up 3 or 4 times so I finally took it out and there were no more problems.

After studying the new Debian for awhile, I proceeded to copy my user files from MEPIS /home to it. That's when I discovered I'd blind-sided myself. I had MY user file system INSIDE Debian's user file system! That seemed to be a difficult condition to overcome.

I decided the easiest way out was to delete the Deb /home with the mix of the 2 user areas, recopy the MEPIS /home to Debian /home and start over, letting the Installer erase the Deb "/" area, which I did. The install failed.

Today I began to wonder if the ext3 vs the ext4 type difference created a conflict. That doesn't seem too likely because I've installed a bunch of Linux OS's over the years with various file types and never had an issue. I also read during my study (I was considering converting my ext3 files to ext4) that ext4 is backward compatible with ext3, so I assumed it isn't an issue. Also, during the short time that both user files were co-existing, there didn't seem to be a problem.

I used the Rescue mode a couple times, with no success. During this effort I gained a better understanding of the Installer (I think it's very confusing the first time through), so I decided to go through a complete install once more. I deleted Debian /home with the 2 coexisting users, re-copied my MEPIS /home to Debian, and let the Installer delete "/". The install failed!

Note that, at boot, it always enters the loggin screen with no problem, but it will not log in to any Desktop. Here are the failure modes that I have found:

1. When I try to log into KDE, it gives a desktop with the response: "Call to lnuser failed (temporary directories fail?) Check your installation."

2. When I try to log into Gnome, I get a desktop with no cursor, no error mode, no way out. I get a message related to "Clipit Saving History". After getting out of this, I find I can hit "cntl-Alt-A" and get a window "Actions Using" (See * below), or with "Cntl-Alt-F1" I get a command line, and after logging in as "user" and then as "root", I can type "startx". It said "Unable to load a failsafe session" as a heading, then "Unable to determine failsafe session name. Possible causes: xfconfd isn't running (D-Bus setup problem); environment variable $xDG_Config_DiRS is set incorrectly (must include "/etc"); xfce4-session is installed incorrectly."
*I also found that "Cntl+Alt+A" gave me a window "Actions Using: None/Empty/Edit Actions". Then "Edit Actions" gives a table with "Actions" highlighted, & under it "Control-click Clipit's Tray icon to use actions", followed by other things below. (I had no cursor, but I could move the selector with the arrow keys to "Settings, History, Actions, Exclude, Hot Keys"). Then, escaping from that, if I hit "Cntl-Alt-F1" keys, that gives me the Command Line. I could not log in as "Root", but I could as "User", and then as "Root". Then "startx" gave me an xfce desktop, which showed all the partitions of the computer. I could log out from this to a command line, but had to use "Cntl-Alt-Del" to get out.

3. When I logged in to xfce, it showed a desktop as above, with the message: "Unable to load failsafe session", followed by text "Causes: xfconfd isn't running (D-Bus setup problem); environment variable $xDG_Config_DiRS is set incorrectly (must include "/etc"), or xfce4-Session is installed incorrectly."

4. While I was installing, I had these 2 issues:
a. I wonder if the 5% that the Installer defaulted to for root space was not enough.
b. At network setup, there was a mode "Firmware missing: rtl_nic/rtl8168-d2.fw"
(this is related to etho0. It defaulted to etho1)

5. There is one other difference in my install setups. The first time (with success) I only chose 3 or 4 of the Desktops. I think they were KDE, Gnome, and xfce, maybe also Gnome Classic. The other times (failures), I selected them all. Is Debian limited in how many? If so, the Installer should stop you if too many.

Do you have any clues about what my problem might be?
Thanks for any help!
Lauren

[dasein]

I confess that I did not read your 900-word epistle, but if my sense of the gist of your problem is correct, this is most likely a permissions issue on /home/<username>. If you have not done so already, double-check ownership.

[mr.Lauren]

I confess that I did not read your 900-word epistle, but if my sense of the gist of your problem is correct, this is most likely a permissions issue on /home/<username>. If you have not done so already, double-check ownership.

Oh my!! You are right!! I checked sda10 (/), and everything is at root permissions BUT /home/lauren is EMPTY!! I don't understand that when, during install, I indicated sda11 as /home. I checked permissions of sda11 (/home partition), and it is a strange mixture of "root" and "user" permissions. For example, /lauren is "lauren", and /lost+found is "root"! I've got some study to do.

Thanks very much for you so quickly finding my problem! I'm sorry for having a too long post, but I thought it would require all the clues I could find to get help.

Lauren

[mr.Lauren]

Hooray! It worked. Thanks very much, dasein, for your advice!
Lauren