I lose the cursor occasionally on bootup on my HP 3110 netbook running Ubuntu 11.01, wireless. It requires me to log out and log back in to restore. From then on it runs fine. Started doing this about a month ago but its random.

Similar problem with accessing the net wirelessly , on occasion it requires a log out log in sequence.

Otherwise its been smooth sailing.

Have you checked the boot logs?

I have noticed similar (mouse) on a gateway netbook - the user of that machine prefers a usb mouse, so doesn't care. Never bothered chasing it up.
For the wireless you'll need to be a (lot) more specific if you want help.
- what vendor/chipset
- what driver
- what kernel even; 3.2.2 introduced a bug in iwlwifi for Intel "N" capable chips. Not sure if Oneric ships that kernel, but I'd doubt it.

Does simply stopping and restarting the interface (rather than log{out,in}) also fix it ?.

Another, perhaps better log to check is the one in your "hidden" files in you /home/<user name> folder. To see these files hit Ctrl+h. They are usually designated like this ~/.filename. You want ~/.xsession-errors.

Your problem should be close to the top of the file.

I don't even know what a boot log is or in what directory it resides. Does that show the occurrence of an exception? Its not been a big problem but it ran smoothly prior to that time and I just don't know what causes it.

The boot logs are in /var/log. The errors log in post 4 will be a better choice though.

Should give you some idea what is going on. Obviously something is not happening right when you boot.

Check that log and see what you can find there that mentions either of your problems.

Another thing you could try is to boot recovery mode and see what scrolls past on the screen. Yes it scrolls pretty fast. If there is a failure it should be seen though and it may stall at an error which gives you time to see what it says.

The log is the place to start though.

I take it this is 11.10 as 11.01 does not exist, or is it 11.04? Just trying to see what the system is exactly.

Don't think that matters a whole lot. You have a system that should be stable at that age so it is a matter of finding out what is not "clicking".

I have been out all day so haven't yet looked for the boot logs but will do so.

Backup? I have attempted backups several times to no avail. I keep getting the error message "volume doesn't implement mount." That tells me it was designed to do that?

It would be nice to be able to backup to an external drive , usb drive or SD card.

As for the wireless card, it now seems to have stopped doing what it was doing. I know I had to download special drivers to make it work and the name of it escapes me right now, I know it was a company that supplied a linux driver but didn't plan to update it , perhaps Procomm?

Sorry to drag this out but do appreciate the professional help