I create a new file, do a Tools > Version Control > Register, and enter
'SVN' for the backend, I get the following errors.

svn: E170000: Unable to connect to a repository at URL
'file://~/Desktop/SVN'
svn: E170000: Unable to open an ra_local session to URL
svn: E170000: Local URL 'file://~/Desktop/SVN' contains unsupported hostname

In GNU Emacs 24.2.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.6.4)
 of 2013-04-09 on komainu, modified by Debian
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11303000
Configured using:
 `configure '--build' 'i686-linux-gnu' '--build' 'i686-linux-gnu'
 '--prefix=/usr' '--sharedstatedir=/var/lib' '--libexecdir=/usr/lib'
 '--localstatedir=/var/lib' '--infodir=/usr/share/info'
 '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--with-pop=yes'
 '--enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs24:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/24.2/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/24.2/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp'
 '--with-crt-dir=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu' '--with-x=yes'
 '--with-x-toolkit=gtk3' '--with-toolkit-scroll-bars'
 'build_alias=i686-linux-gnu' 'CFLAGS=-g -O2 -fstack-protector
 --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wall'
 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro'
 'CPPFLAGS=-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Org

Minor modes in effect:
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  tool-bar-mode: t
  menu-bar-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  blink-cursor-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
<help-echo> <menu-bar> <file> <new-file> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <menu-bar> <file> <new-file>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <menu-bar> <tools>
<vc> <vc-dir> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo> <help-echo>
<help-echo> <menu-bar> <tools> <vc> <vc-register> S
V N <return> <return> <help-echo> <down-mouse-1> <mouse-movement>
<mouse-movement> <help-echo> <mouse-movement> <mouse-movement>
<help-echo> <mouse-movement> <help-echo> <mouse-movement>
<help-echo> <mouse-movement> <mouse-movement> <mouse-movement>
<help-echo> <mouse-movement> <help-echo> <mouse-movement>
<mouse-movement> <mouse-movement> <mouse-movement>
<mouse-movement> <mouse-movement> <mouse-movement>
<mouse-movement> <mouse-movement> <mouse-movement>

Recent messages:
For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a.
Quit
(New file)
OVERVIEW
vc-responsible-backend: No VC backend is responsible for /home/brian/Desktop
arg ~/Desktop/
vc-do-command: Running svn --non-interactive checkout file://~/Desktop/SVN
....FAILED (status 1)
Saved text from "svn: E170000: Unable to connect to a rep"
Making completion list... [4 times]

Load-path shadows:
/usr/share/emacs/24.2/site-lisp/debian-startup hides
/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup
/usr/share/emacs/24.2/site-lisp/dictionaries-common/ispell hides
/usr/share/emacs/24.2/lisp/textmodes/ispell
/usr/share/emacs/24.2/site-lisp/dictionaries-common/flyspell hides
/usr/share/emacs/24.2/lisp/textmodes/flyspell
/usr/share/emacs/24.2/site-lisp/latex-cjk-thai/thai-word hides
/usr/share/emacs/24.2/lisp/language/thai-word

Features:
(shadow sort gnus-util mail-extr emacsbug message rfc822 mml mml-sec
mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils
mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr
mail-utils help-mode view vc-arch vc-mtn vc-hg vc-git vc-bzr vc-sccs
vc-svn vc-cvs vc-rcs vc-dir ewoc vc ediff-merg ediff-diff ediff-wind
ediff-help ediff-util ediff-mult ediff-init ediff vc-dispatcher org-wl
org-w3m org-vm org-rmail org-mhe org-mew org-irc org-jsinfo org-infojs
org-html org-exp ob-exp org-exp-blocks find-func org-agenda org-info
org-gnus org-docview org-bibtex bibtex org-bbdb org byte-opt warnings
bytecomp byte-compile cconv macroexp advice help-fns advice-preload
ob-emacs-lisp ob-tangle ob-ref ob-lob ob-table org-footnote org-src
ob-comint ob-keys ob ob-eval org-pcomplete pcomplete comint ansi-color
ring org-list org-faces org-compat org-entities org-macs noutline
outline easy-mmode format-spec regexp-opt cal-menu easymenu calendar
cal-loaddefs time-date tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type
mwheel x-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image fringe lisp-mode register
page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock
font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang
misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew
greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese
case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer loaddefs
button faces cus-face files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64
format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable
backquote make-network-process dbusbind dynamic-setting
system-font-setting font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x
multi-tty emacs)