infinitus 0 Junior Poster in Training

Hello there i would like someone to have a peek at this code and does it solve the question correctly ?? Are there any mistakes or any improvements i could add ??
Also i struggle in this questions as i do not get it fully(in fact i dont get what sessions ment to do here), any help appreciated :)

Question:
Add user authentication. Modify checkuser.php so that a user can log in, and modify search.php so it will only run for an authenticated user logged in with checkuser.php.(Use sessions)
Add JavaScript user input form validation to the log-in form.

checkuser.php

<script type="text/javascript">
function validateForm()
{
var x=document.forms["login"]["username"]["password"].value;
if (x==null || x=="")
  {
  alert("Wrong login details");
  return false;
  }
}
</script>
<form name="login" action='' method=post> 
    Username <input type='text' name='username' /> <br>
    Password <input type='text' name='password' /> <br>
    <input type='submit' value='Submit' /> 
</form>
<?php
//     matchnames.php   to see how many times a friends and phoneNo name matches in table  
//     only sees a match if matches once only (not 2 times)
//if (!(isset($_POST['username'])))  { exit; }  // password not sent in ... so exit

 $username = $_POST['username']; 
 $password = $_POST['password']; 

 $dbhandle = sqlite_popen("passwords", 0666, $err_msg);
 if(!$dbhandle) die("Could not open the database");

                               // Count rows with this   
 $sql = "SELECT COUNT(password) from username WHERE name = '$username' AND password = '$password' ";
 $query = sqlite_query($dbhandle, $sql);   // result set goes into query
 $result = sqlite_fetch_all($query, SQLITE_NUM);  //calls columns by num (use ASSOC for col names)
 print_r( $result);  // useful debug - show all results
 // each result array element contains a row of table. The row holds pairs of row name, row value 
 $firstrow = $result[0];    //sql result has just one row - so get the first row
 $rowcount = $firstrow[0];  //the first array element (first column) in that first row
 print "Count result is: $rowcount ";

                               // count rows with this   
  $sql = "SELECT * from username WHERE name = '$username' AND password = '$password' ";
  $query = sqlite_query($dbhandle, $sql);   // result set goes into query
  $result = sqlite_fetch_all($query, SQLITE_NUM);  //calls columns by num (use ASSOC for col names)
  $rowcount = sqlite_num_rows($query);   
  print " Alternative count is $rowcount ";


 if ( $rowcount  != 1)
   {
   print " name didnt match once ";
   // exit;   //  we could stop them trying again with end program
   }
 else
   {
    print " name matched once ";
   }
 sqlite_close($dbhandle);
?>