start up laptop with no problem
see my user name on screen with no problem
but when clicked on it
no appearance of a place to enter a password
but a notice of this "ICEauthority" problem
tried going into terminal via F3
see my name and laptop name (in a terminal window?) but still refuses my password
am in GNU GRUB
but not sure what to do
would like to get into root and then usr/dad
think it is a need to turn on password ... forgot the name of it in that file
a friend accessed that file thru the Systems button and turned it off
said I do not need it

this is cinnamon sarah mint 18.3 32 bit on thinkpad e530

Probably wrong permissions/ownerhip on ~/.ICEauthority.

Reboot into recovery mode (it's hidden under "Advanced Options" in the GRUB menu for LM 18.x). I'm not sure if remounting filesystems read/write as described in the link above is still needed for LM 18.x. If you don't get that option in the recovery menu then just drop to root prompt. The password you'll be asked is the same you set when installing the system. From there, check permissions and ownership on your home directory and .ICEauthority. Often, where user is your username, would be enough.