Ubuntu - Problem with GDM

[msmarc]

I recently installed ubuntu server edition on a g4 mac and got everything to work. At some point I uninstalled gdm, couldn't boot into linux, reinstalled it remotely but now I can't get it to work.

My terminal works fine, I've tried to purge gdm and ubuntu-desktop and reinstall but no luck.

When I start gdm I get to the login screen, try and login and then the 1st error I get says the dmrc file in the home directory has the wrong permissions. Even if I change those permissions i get the same error when I try again.

If I continue past that error I get and error saying:
Can't create dir /var/Desktop
Can't create dir /var/Documents
and so on through all the main folders

It seems like I have problems with permissions in the home and var folder but I don't know how to fix them. What are the permissions supposed to be?

hers' the ls -li info for var:
drwxrwr-x root root
and for home
drwxr-xr-x root root

Somebody please help, I really don't want to have to reinstall the whole thing.

[SeanC]

Can you get local access to the machine? My theory is that when you remotely reinstalled GDM, it set the wrong permissions on the files.

If you can get local access, you can uninstall and reinstall GDM again.