Anyhow, the fact is I never got to the bottom of the "Ubuntu Login Problem" but having had so much grief I'm not about to mess with dual booting or anything silly on this laptop having finally got the thing working to a reasonable standard. I guess it might be a good idea to try running Ubuntu in live disc mode or better still try it on an old PC seeing as I have several to play with. So just for the moment will leave this thread open.......and stick with Mint17 Rosa.

I am going to check ells-where as to why I have to sign in manually every time I reboot this machine to the wifi, then followed by having to press the wifi button for around a minute to get it to come to life......maybe the driver not quite right?...As I say, maybe I should go check that one ells-where.

Thanks big time to all those who have helped me gain just a little confidence, in what I’m sure is going to be a long journey but so much more satisfying than that retched Microcash rubbish.

Cheers Pozzouk.

I believe in Ubuntu there's an option to check the boot medium (i.e. the live DVD). Might want to give that a try. I think Mint has it too.

On the note that you got a "good" copy from a magazine cover, you might want to see if a pressed Ubuntu disk gives you any better luck.
(Sounds like you're in the UK, so shipping from Canonical should be cheap and fast.)

EDIT: Looks like they're out of stock of the 14.04 singles, so you'd have to buy a bundle. Not all bad if you're like me and get the disks scratched to oblivion quickly.

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If that's about your wifi card module (driver in M$ terminology) you can continue searching for answers among linux forums (forae) in the internet. Just google "Atheros AR242x AR542x Wireless Linux module" you will have plenty of information drawn from real experience of many people, up to hints and work-arounds in different situations. I am confident too that the present abnormality in your wifi connection is a minor problem since Atheros is known to be friendly to linux and *BSD's.

You just scaled over a great obstacle. You won. You didn't lose because you didn't give up. Perseverance is our virtue. If you did it today you can do it tomorrow, against whatever hindrance the future brings. You have just began the enjoyable life of hacking.

Congratulations! Good luck and enjoy.

m.m.

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Woah...the issue happened to me! Correct password, and attempting to log in causes lightdm to come back up and attempt to log me in again.

What I did before that was playing around with Ubuntu 16.04 Beta, and chroot. Apparently the issue has to do with the .Xauthority file. (No, I didn't get X/Mir apps running via chroot. Oh well.)

So in theory, all you need is a good .Xauthority file.

Actually if you have login problem (refused logging-in) just keep on re-trying, usually authorization is confirmed if right $USER & $PASSWD are matched constantly. I usually do this up to third - fifth attempts and login is granted.

The shortest way is continued attempts. But if you have time open up a shell (CTL+ALT+Fn), login, delete the problematic xauth file go back to the login box (CTL+ALT+F7) and login as usual. The XDM or KDM or GDM will create for you another .Xauthority or .Xresources file and logs you in based on the source on record.

Hope that helps.

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Sorry, forgot to mention I restored the original file and everything is working fine now.

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Just to round up for any of you guys that followed this thread - in short, I never did get past the Login box for Ubuntu 14.04 on the Presario CQ60 laptop, although it ran on a desk top machine fine.

As for the wireless login problem I ran into when I switched to Mint17.3 - Again I never truely solved this issue although it does connect with a touch of patience - I just have to manually login, nudging the prefilled dropdown details for the hidden connection in the Network manager - followed by an extended press of around 30 seconds on the always blue WiFi button. All very strange but it works - I'm not sure but I suspect unless anyone tells me otherwise, that it most likely is an issue particular to this HP/Compaq hardware.

Thanks Guys
Pozzouk.