[Sussex] Xubuntu hangs when loading hardware drivers

[Fay Zee]

Hi.

I've had a problem booting Xubuntu 6.06 on my Dell L400 this evening.
Last used successfully Saturday 8 Dec when I lent it to Alex to use all day at
the HantsLUG meet. He says he shut it down properly.

But now, it only gets so far, then hangs:
WhatsItAllAboutAlfie07
Loading essential drivers...
Mounting root file system...
Reading files needed to boot...
Preparing restricted drivers...
Starting basic naetworking...
Starting kernel event manager...
Loading hardware drivers...

Hangs at this point.

First time I tried it this evening I had it connected to the Internet with a LAN
cable and a USB pen drive attached. Then I removed them and just had it on a
power lead with no peripherals at all mounted.

Tried many times, even leaving it half an hour. Made no difference.

Then tried in recovery mode. Same problem.
But at least I get the exact failure line:

[4294698.025000] nm256: Mapping port 1 from 0x2709a0 - 0x27ec00


Any ideas please?

Fay