Newb to Ubuntu needs (unusual) help

Hm.

Alright, so I installed Ubuntu 5 a bit ago, then left to college. I get back and see there's an update to Ubuntu 6 - alright. So I go into the Update Manager to download it. But it won't do that. It won't run system apps through the graphical (GNOME?) interface. Firefox runs, but I can't go to the update manager, Users and Groups thing, Login Screen Setup... etc. None of the admin things run, though the "start bar" says "Staring Users and Groups."

Did I set up Ubuntu wrong or something? What am I doing wrong? Why won't programs start?

you'd be best off getting an irc client and asking in the ubuntu irc channel.

good luck though

>>1
i think ububntu 6 is still beta, and has many changes from 5.  not sure why it would prompt you to update yet, but it could very well be that your programs are not compatible with 6.