Apologies for being so long in returning to this subject, as promised on December 15.
If you’ve read my entry Starting Bluetooth Services: Gutsy bootup problem from December 4, you’ll have read that my attempts to blacklist Bluetooth failed.

I’ve had some comments and emails about this, and it seems to be a particular problem with HP Pavillions. Thankfully, the solution I finally found on https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug172660 (no longer a valid link, unfortunately) worked for me and worked for those who asked me about it.

Unfortunately it entails disabling Bluetooth. The tip is to disable Bluetooth by adding

exit 0;

at the beginning of /etc/init.d/bluetooth

In your terminal, type or copy this.

~$ nano /etc/init.d/bluetooth

Click on the image below to see where you insert exit 0;

If you have trouble getting into your desktop, see Aldeby’s comments at Starting Bluetooth Services: Gutsy bootup problem

I think I tried a different code before, but failed before, but this time 7.10 generic launched flawlessly
without any parameters in the boot menu. Aldeby’s advice to use nano instead of vim was the key - vim is too complicated for non-geeks like me.

Aldeby has a very good tutorial on HP Pavillions here:
Howto: Ubuntu on HP pavilion dv65xx series laptop

If this works for you I’d appreciated if you left a comment including what computer you have.