Hi Felix,  Thank you for your help.

On Friday 16 March 2018 17:02:17 Felix Miata wrote:
> Baron composed on 2018-03-16 14:13 (UTC):
> > If I login with the root password, I get pages and pages of what
> > I think maybe logs.  At the end of this if I "StartX" I get my
> > normal desktop.  At this point if I logout and hard boot the
> > machine, everything comes up as normal.
> >
> > I haven't a clue what is going on here...  Help !
>
> Instead of startx, try
>
> 	journalctl | grep failed
>
> and see if it reports what failed.

If I run this now, will I get anything useful ?

> As others suggested, the problem is a systemd race condition. Did
> this start after an update to the current initrd, or after a update
> that installed a new kernel? Do you have a boot menu that allows
> you to select to boot with an older kernel, which if selected
> behaves normally? If so, an initrd rebuild might make the problem
> go away.
>
> If Q4OS is a Plymouth user, you might try disabling it by adding to
> cmdline
>
> 	plymouth.enable=0

I did see something about "plymouth" when the pages of lines were 
flashing by.

> With or without plymouth, if you remove "quiet" from the cmdline,
> you might be able as boot proceeds to spot the initial mention of
> the start job that is failing.


-- 
Best Regards:
            Baron