comp specs: hp dv6000 2gb ram 1.73ghz intel core duo jaunty 9.04

so ive been running a fresh install of ubuntu jaunty for over a month now. still getting the hang of everything, so kind of new to it all. i recently was running my jaunty 2.6.28-15 and installed some updates (was having problems with that too). i pressed shut down and went to bed. when i woke, i saw that my comp actually hadn't shut down but paused on my desktop background all night.

now, i cant even get passed grub. as soon as i select my kernel (2.6.28-15) or 2.6.28-14, 2.6.28-13, or 2.6.28-11, it gets to the ubuntu screen and the loading bar locks and the caps light blinks. when loading any of the recovery modes they say "Kernel Panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!"

tried doing research as how to fix a kernel panic or anything but not really helping since i cant even get into my system to do sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-jaunty. right now i am running off my livecd ok but i need to fix this problem. any suggestions? should i go to an older/newer kernel or can i repair those kernels that i have through my livecd of jaunty somehow?

thanks!

try using one of the other kernels listed in the grub menu. every second one is a recovery kernel, and every other one is a working kernel.

ive tried that. i tried each kernel i listed as well as each of their recovery modes. nothing doing. any other suggestions?

Well, what I would do is use a live cd to backup my personal files, and make a fresh install.

i actually already did that since i couldnt find an answer anywhere. kind of annoying having to do that and reinstall all my codecs/plugins/programs but its working now. thanks anyway!

backup backup backup! I have partition images of my / partition and I tar my /home partition regularly. In fact, I'm gonna start doing rsync, since it is less network intensive. The thing is, I can recover very fast from a situation like yours. On the other hand, installing is great practice.
Well done!