Hal freezes on startup...

OS: Dapper
Kernel: 2.6.15-14-386
Board: Intel 875 SW
Ram: 1GB
Swap: 2.5GB
CPU: Pentium 4 3.2 GHz

This happens on a fresh install. My other computer running Dapper (AMD Athlon XP 3200+/ASUS/1GB) doesn't exhibit this behaviour.

I have to kill the process with ctrl-alt-sysreq-f to allow the boot-up to continue. I see an "out of memory" error just after this which is odd considering the amount of memory the system has.

Here's an lspci -v listing:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82875P/E7210 Memory Controller Hub (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation 82875P/E7210 Memory Controller Hub
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Capabilities: <available only to root>

0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82875P Processor to AGP Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 32
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
        I/O behind bridge: 00007000-00007fff
        Memory behind bridge: fc800000-fc8fffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: bc700000-dc6fffff

0000:00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82875P/E7210 Processor to PCI to CSA Bridge (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, fast devsel, latency 32
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
        I/O behind bridge: 00008000-00008fff
        Memory behind bridge: fc900000-fc9fffff

0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 3428
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 169
        I/O ports at cc00 [size=32]

0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 3428
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 177
        I/O ports at d000 [size=32]

0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 3428
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 185
        I/O ports at d400 [size=32]

0000:00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 3428
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 169
        I/O ports at d800 [size=32]

0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 3428
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 193
        Memory at febffc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
        Capabilities: <available only to root>

0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=32
        I/O behind bridge: 00009000-0000bfff
        Memory behind bridge: fca00000-feafffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 50000000-500fffff

0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 3428
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 185
        I/O ports at <unassigned>
        I/O ports at <unassigned>
        I/O ports at <unassigned>
        I/O ports at <unassigned>
        I/O ports at ffa0 [size=16]
        Memory at 50100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]

0000:00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB (ICH5) SATA Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 8f [Master SecP SecO PriP PriO])
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 3428
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 185
        I/O ports at ec00 [size=8]
        I/O ports at e800 [size=4]
        I/O ports at e400 [size=8]
        I/O ports at e000 [size=4]
        I/O ports at dc00 [size=16]

0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 3428
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 11
        I/O ports at c800 [size=32]

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO] (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: C.P. Technology Co. Ltd: Unknown device 2093
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 169
        Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        I/O ports at 7800 [size=256]
        Memory at fc8f0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Expansion ROM at fc8c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: <available only to root>

0000:01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 5940 (rev 01)
        Subsystem: C.P. Technology Co. Ltd: Unknown device 2092
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 32
        Memory at c8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Memory at fc8e0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Capabilities: <available only to root>

0000:02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82547EI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (LOM)
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 3428
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 185
        Memory at fc9e0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        I/O ports at 8c00 [size=32]
        Capabilities: <available only to root>

0000:03:00.0 Mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20268 (Ultra100 TX2) (rev 02) (prog-if 85)
        Subsystem: Promise Technology, Inc. Ultra100TX2
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, slow devsel, latency 32, IRQ 201
        I/O ports at bc00 [size=8]
        I/O ports at b800 [size=4]
        I/O ports at b400 [size=8]
        I/O ports at b000 [size=4]
        I/O ports at ac00 [size=16]
        Memory at feafc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Expansion ROM at 50020000 [disabled] [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <available only to root>

0000:03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 46) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 209
        Memory at feafb800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
        I/O ports at a800 [size=128]
        Capabilities: <available only to root>

0000:03:02.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq 5880 AudioPCI (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Ensoniq Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI128
        Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 32, IRQ 217
        I/O ports at a400 [size=64]
        Capabilities: <available only to root>

0000:03:06.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation: Unknown device 3428
        Flags: stepping, medium devsel, IRQ 1
        Memory at ff000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=16M]
        I/O ports at 9000 [disabled] [size=256]
        Memory at fca00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=4K]
        Expansion ROM at 50000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: <available only to root>