Recently upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04 and each time I switch on the computer I get the message "Internal Error. Failed to initialize HAL". The only symptom I seem to have is when switching off. There is a noticeable time interval between clicking on the 'switch off' sign and the appearance of the switch off/ restart/ log out options. Also on one occasion I could not 'unmount volume' on my card reader. Whether related to this or not, I cannot now get the local weather applets on my desktop.

weather has nothing to do with hardware which is hal.

2) check your /var/log/syslog pls and report what errors you are finding....if large number just show the main theme of each error.

3) check your bios is still got pnp turned off

4) but acpi ....power management needs to be on. You have not mentioned if this is laptop so if it is pls state so

I have tried /var/log/syslog and it gives 'permission denied'. I don't know how to check the bios for pnp turned off. My computer is a desktop not a laptop. I now find also that the CD/DVD roms on my computer are not being detected.
My problems are increasing - the computer is no longer detecting the printer.
When using Synaptic Packet Manager this is the message I get "E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report."
When I try to type this into the Terminal the outcome is errors in Sympa, Serendipity, Sympa and ocs inventory agent.

permission denied....sorry you need root powers to access certain root files.

use su or sudo to get in pls....it does look like you need to read some more files in /var/log but syslog is the main one....then messages....I use Mdv but hoping you also have /var/log/daemons

good luck

2) leaping ahead backwards...did you keep images of your old build?

Thank you for all that. The last first, I do not know whether I kept images of my old build, if that refers to the previous edition of Ubuntu I do have an installation disc of "Gutsy" but when I tried to re install that the hard drive wouldn't format because there is an error on it (is the message). When I try to use either Synaptic or Terminal to install or remove anything the package ocsinventory-agent (1:0.0.8-1) seems to keep trying to install and blocking everything I do. This makes both Synaptic and terminal useless for that purpose. I tried typing sudo /var/log/syslog into a terminal and got command not found. However on entering the file system I did find syslog and and streams of entries for every moment I am on the computer. Nothing stands out as being the main one. I was ready to wipe my hard drive and re-install Gutsy, but even that did not seem to be an option.

yes it may be that you need some more exploring before committing to a hard drive system.

there are tons of info on how a system boots but the short answer is bios to bootloader to kernel to init scripts

ONe of those init scripts is to load weather and you may find the weather one in /etc/init.d which contains all the services that you can have on or off at bootup called by your runlevel....see /etc/inittab for your runlevel if excited by such info.

But the script to call the weather will actually exist in /etc/rc5.d/.....where I assume ubuntu uses runlevel 5 for multi user gui logins.

2) leaping ahead....pls consider d/loading a good live cd....if you like debian style there are heaps to choose from at www.distrowatch.com
and just get used to using either su or sudo to read your system logs and troubleshoot your hardware such as the media readers.

I am not sure if you had already done that but it seems to me you may benefit from a little bit more reading of logs.

since you are in the UK you might be able to get your hands on linuxformat magazine a lot cheaper than us aussies.

Thank you for your help. I have sorted out the "stuck" package and now have access to Synaptic. I still do not have communication between the computer and printer or cd writer or card readers. The message "failed to initialise Hal" was appearing but didn't at the recent start up, and one card reader activated very briefly. Any ideas?