Comment 58 for bug 335297

This worked for me

sudo update-rc.d -f dbus remove
sudo update-rc.d dbus defaults
sudo update-rc.d -f hal remove
sudo update-rc.d hal defaults

I have a P4 homemade... can't remember what's in. if you want info please tell me what logs
I did an dist upgrade from hardy (through online update manager) to

Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic

Mouse and keyboard were frozen. I went to recovery mode and managed to get in X with
/etc/init.d/dbus start
/etc/init.d/hal start
startx

Then I was able to google to this bugs launchpad and found the solution! (I tried adding noht to /boot/grub/menu.lst but made no changes)
So thanks a lot to you all and especially botticchio, and now I'm registered !

I'm still surprised at how long this issue has been going on and that no corrected updates were available through update manager. Anyway thanks again and long live.....