... Failed to create receiver object from assembly ... value cannot be null

I had this error, when I deployed a custom site-definition and then tried to create a new site-collection. The error was caused by a code I deployed some time before. I retracted those solutions and then deployed from scratch. It is important to clean out with old "not used" solutions. Also check in the Central-Administration, if all not used solutions are removed. After the new deployment, everything went smooth.

It could also be, that there is somewhere an assembly, that is called the same or does have similar namespaces.

failed to instantiate file default.master not found.

This was a tough one. Trying to setup a site-definition and then received this error always, when trying to create a site.
My basic site-definition was extended with a module to initialize the masterpage, because I read on a website to do so.
It seems that the error is somewhere completely different. Got to the onet.xml and change the configuration-tag:

Usually most websites do show the onet.xml configuration tag as a relative path. But this change fixed my project.

the specified path, file name, or both are too long - Sharepoint 2010

Cut down your names. It might be, that your solution, files, etc. are too long. Just cut them down. Check the "project folder" property of your project. Is it not supposed to be very long. Try to keep it short.

the referenced file is not allowed on this page - Sharepoint 2010

It seems you are trying to register a user-control from the layouts folder. Put it into the controltemplates folder and it should work.