just upgraded my laptop install of mandriva to 2009.1. one very noticeable problem was that i had no keyboard in X.
quick google revealed i wasn’t alone with this problem.

solution:
boot into rescue
rename /etc/rc5.d/S99messagebus to S96messagebus

i’d like to do a clean install, but i’m too lazy for that…
i’ve upgraded mandriva at least 2 times on this laptop so far. nothing horrible has happened yet.

and
my first impressions of 2009.1 are pretty good. i like gnome 2.26.

added note:
couldn’t get vmware workstation 6.5.2 to compile kernel modules for 2.6.29
found this patch by googling: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/203231
worked great. thank you patch author.

and just for reference, a list of vmware workstation kernel modules:
vmblock, vmci, vmmon, vsock, vmnet

(07:57:34 PM) c0c0blade: THEY GET MY CRUMBS
(07:57:38 PM) c0c0blade: after im done with the feast