I have just done another complete reboot using the ubuntu utilities to clean up broken links and tried using Skrooge again with the intent of starting over with a new set up entering all the data again instead of trying to open the password protected file that seems to cause the problem.
Skrooge has updated itself to 26.1.20 since I started this and it will not allow me to create that initial account to get it going. When I try to do a new setup I get the old error messages:
ERR-3 No database defined
ERR-5 Document creating failed
ERR-12 Wrong password (I haven’t even created anything so no password should be needed)
Regretfully I am going to have to recreate my data on Homebank or KMyMoney just to keep going while somehow I can get help to get Skrooge going again.