[GRASS5] grass 5.7 new location fails

I am trying to create a new location in 5.7. I am attempting this from the grass startup and I seem to be stuck in a loop.

1. I start grass
2. I get the gui that has a create new location button
3. I cd to the dir /usr/local/share/grassdata
3. If I hit the create new location button, grasss crashes with the error:

ERROR: Invalid return code from gis_set.tcl.
Please advise GRASS developers of this error.
/usr/local/grass57/etc/Init.sh: line 497: LOCATION_NAME: parameter null or not set
truffula:~ kirkw$

4. I try and restart grass, but get the error:

Cleaning up temporary files.....
Starting GRASS ...
ERROR: LOCATION_NAME not set
Error in startup script: can't read "env_location": no such variable
     while executing
"set location $env_location"
     (procedure "searchGISRC" line 23)
     invoked from within
"searchGISRC $gisrc_name"
     (file "/usr/local/grass57/etc/gis_set.tcl" line 1)
/usr/local/grass57/etc/Init.sh: line 497: LOCATION_NAME: parameter null or not set
truffula:~ kirkw$

5. I rm the .grassrc57 file and the the sequence repeats...

Kirk