I installed ubuntu 5.1 a couple of days ago. The installation went well. When I got to the Ubuntu desktop, I had 23 updates waiting for me. One was a KERNAL. So after I installed the software I was told in a message that I should reboot ASAP because a new KERNAL was installed. When I rebooted, the Gimp menu told me that this was true. When I rebooted I got a nice graphical login screen. almost at the end of the desktop load a nasty little window appeared and told me there was an internal error! HAL failed to initialize. After I figured out what HAL was I tried to open him up. The device manager flicked open for a second then shut down. I knew then that the nasty little window was telling the truth.

This is what I have tried; I uninstalled and reinstalled HAL, which by the way, uninstalls a bunch of stuff, including Ubuntu desktop; I did the same thing again except did a permanent permanent, deleting the configuration files; Then I turned all the permissions on for HAL. Then I used "repair a broken program" from the pkg manager. Sad to say these things didn't work.

I'm trying not to have to have to completely reinstall. I hope there's an easy fix for this. Everything else works fine except my cheap printer, and I've already got a lot of extra stuff installed.

I heard there was a program that I could use to use my printer driver on my WinXP hard drive. But with HAL outta commission, I can't access that drive.

Chargerbear

what printer do you have. There might be a simpler way. Go check in the Hardware compatability list to see what experience other users have had with your printer. What kernel did you upgrade to?

I really need to get HAL going. I'm sure that I will be able to get the printer problem resolved. I already have a resolution for the printer problem. I can use my Lexmark 730 for a boat anchor and buy an Epson or an HP.

Chargerbear

what kernel do you have. Is it possible you could manually update the kernel again. That might clear any error that happened during the update.

I'll get the other info and post it for you.

Can you meet me in IRQ Chat?

where.
might take me a while to get configure but i could
edit: IRC or ICQ? you kind of combined the 2. It is confusing me greatly
edit2: right now i am hanging out in freenode.net but i need to know what channel to meet you in
edit3:I think we are going to have to resolve this tomorrow night. Post again and leave the channel and i will see if i can meet you

I see your running Gentoo. If that uses the ubuntu desktop then hit Applications then Internet then Xchat IRC(not IRQ like I said) then the channel is #Ubuntu. The Kernal that came on the ISO was2.6.12-9. The new kernal that the update program installed was 2.6.12-10. I'm not sure that the updated KERNAL was the reason that HAL fails to initialize. There were 23 updates and I just wanted to use my new OS, so I didn't read about the updates. Something us newbies do. I'm an oldie went it comes to computers, but I'm a newbie when it comes to Linux. My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI99/4a with 4K of RAM. Linux is very close to Amiga DOS, so I'm not compleately stupid on the matter. Just compleately stupid on the terminology. Things got different names.

Chargerbear

I reinstalled Ubuntu 5.1. This time when I got to the desktop. I read the description of the 23 updates that were waiting for me. One of the updates was a Debian base upgrade. I thought that maybe this upgrade should be installed after the KERNAL up date. I clicked the checkbox and deselected Debian Base. I installed everything else. then I rebooted and installed Debian Base. No more internal error and HAL is healthy and back to work. Thanks for your help. You guys helped me by not repling to the specific problem. I figured if nobody had this problem but me, my initial thought about reinstalling was correct.

Chargerbear Now I guess I'm a real Linux user.