Ubuntu 5.10 LiveCD
Hmm, I've never used Ubunto, but I may be able to help.
An IRQ is basically a way to interface with hardware (not that I am not by any means a low level system API expert. If someone is and they read this, please correct any of this that is wrong or lacking). It seems that Ubunto is calling the wrong IRQ (duh). Which basically adds up to, the OS can't talk to the hardware.
No idea how to fix this, see if is possible to boot into a comamnd prompt or into the kernal and then see what it outputs. Maybe by looking at the error messages you'll be able to fix it. BTW, if you can get a command prompt, type:
dmesg | less
That will output the kernal ring buffer to the less command (which for the technically oriented is a pager). You can then use the arrow keys to scroll up and down, looking for errors. You might also try:
dmesg | grep -i "irq" | less
That will pull out the string "IRQ" (case insensitive) from the dmesg command, and then shoot it off to less.
Sorry if any of that was unclear, but I'm dead tired ATM (just got back from practice).
BTW, do you really want to use Ubunto? They have had a record number of kernal vulns in the past 2 months (something like 20),