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can't start gdm or login as user



My wife's laptop crashed last night and after restarting gdm will not
start.  I get a message 

Server Authorization directory (daemon/ServAuthDir) is set to
/var/lib/gdm but this does not exist. Please correct gdm configuration
/etc/gdm/gdm.conf and restart gdm.

and a blinking cursor.  When I press ENTER more services start up and I
get

Starting GNOME Display Manager: gdmgdm_config_parse Authdir /var/lib/gdm
does not exist. Aborting.
 already running.

and then the login prompt.

The directory /var/lib/gdm does exist.

I can login as root and startx OK, but when I try to login as pamela I
get a message 

unable to cd to "/home/pamela"

The directory /home/pamela does exist.

When logged in as root and su pamela I get 

No shell

I'm thinking (hoping) there is an easy solution, the 'No shell' gives me
a clue but I don't know enough to fix this.  The laptop is running woody
with dist-upgrade on Mar 27.  Any help will be greatly appreciated. 


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