I too get the "error failed to initialize HAL" when starting up Gnome.
When I change to KDE at startup, is "seems" to start normally, but if I try to use Konqueror to browse files, - i.e. by clicking on a folder - Konqueror hangs.
Also, if I recall corrrectly, when I clicked on the KDE main menu, system complained that "system processes terminated prematurely" or something to that effect...
I too get the "error failed to initialize HAL" when starting up Gnome.
When I change to KDE at startup, is "seems" to start normally, but if I try to use Konqueror to browse files, - i.e. by clicking on a folder - Konqueror hangs.
Also, if I recall corrrectly, when I clicked on the KDE main menu, system complained that "system processes terminated prematurely" or something to that effect...