Problem with ubuntu 8.04

[Oreste]

I am new to Linux. 20 day ago I installed Ubuntu 8.04 and enjoyed it. 3 
days ago I downloaded the recommended updates (120 Mega), after that I 
also installed Wine, a version found on a magazine I think it was 1.01 
or similar).
Now when I start ubuntu, after the request of inserting name and 
password I receive the following message:
"user's $Home/.dmrc file being ignored. This prevents the default 
session and language from being saved. File should be owned by user and 
have 644 permissions. User's $Home directory must be owned by user and 
not writable by other users".

When I press OK, after a few seconds a second message appears:
"The Gnome session manager was unable to lock the file 
'/home/oreste/.Iceauthority! Please report this as a gnome bug"

And after that everything goes back to the request of name and password. 
I tried different sessions but with no result. Of course I do not know 
how to use the line commands.
Please Help
Oreste