It seems with M8 test 2, I'm getting an intermittent kernel panic on boot just when hald starts up. I'm fully up to date with the latest kernel now I've purged tg3 but it was happening with the previous kernel too. Also, I have done a fresh install to see if that helps. Some of the time I can get a successful boot & the system seems stable once up but probably about half the time it will not start up past hald starting. This is using my install on an external 2.5" hdd plugged in to a Dell Inspiron 1501. I have looked in /var/log at various things bu can't see anything that might help. Any ideas?

I'm guessing that hald is finding it hard to consistently see your external hdd.

try looking at /var/log/boot for clues.

You could try removing hal (and what comes with it, probably dbus) and reinstalling them all.

I would do this in a terminal so you see what gets removed so you can then reinstall.

Will keep an eye on the situation & try re-installing hald if it doesn't improve. Stevo at Mepislovers mentioned something about the latest Mepis kernel having a bug fix resolving interrupt storm issues, so will see how we go...

Update: Still doing it! I tried apt-get remove --purge hal then re-installed along with everything else it took out but still no better. /var/log/boot doesn't show anything useful. I guess it is probably something to do with being on an external HDD. If I get too sick of it, I guess I'll 'revert' to M7.5 which was as good as gold! __{{emoticon}}__