[CentOS] more newbie questions -- init 5 works, init 3 doesn't for "normal" users

OK, after 3 tries I got CentOS 6.6 installed (don't ask). Now something
very odd is happening. My regular user, me, can not login  to level 3
without odd errors.

I get /home/<username> not found when it's there and setup with correct
permissions -- well here I am using it in run level 5 just fine!

So, my normal user is left logged in at /root. Even if I move over to
the correct /home area and then try startx (my preferred way of doing
business), it does NOT start. Tries all kinds of things, and finally fails.

My next step is to take a look at the gnome startup script vs startx to
see if I can figure out the differences if no one has encountered this
before.

ps. the partitioning tool DID work, but a LOT of futzing with this. I
finally did end up with combining my old /opt and /usr with /, so
hopefully I won't run into any issues later.
-- 
--------------------------------------------
MzK

"We can all sleep easy at night knowing that
 somewhere at any given time,
 the Foo Fighters are out there fighting Foo."
                          -- David Letterman