pagination doesn't work

You're right -- the result variable does contain data, so it shouldn't be undefined. What's happening is that variables in your controller are not visible within your view for some reason. I think the problem must be in the third-party template library. Could you try using Codeigniter's $this->load->view('users/index', $users) just to see if you can access the result variable that way?

Hey, don't work without a PHP debugger. Several free IDEs have this features built in. Two are NetBeans and CodeLobster. Without a debugger, it's like you're driving with a blindfold on -- you are going to crash!