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Problems experienced when installing Ubuntu Hardy Release Candidate 32 bit on a new Dell XPS M1530 using the Alternative CD:

Needed to log into Vista and run chkdsk before the installer would perform the partition resizing required for installation.

After installation, the MediaDirect button led to a blue screen of death.

The touchpad became very jumping a little while after installing Ubuntu. It may have been connected to an attempt to change the mouse speed using the System->Preferences menu, or maybe not. This was fixed by editing /boot/grub/menu.lst and changing the active 'kernel' line to (not addition of final term):

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=52f707cb-d55c-417b-a888-bd0990650b8b ro quiet splash i8042.nomux

The fingerprint reader needed the instructions from ThinkFinger in order to work. It can now be used for logins but one must first type one's username, which wasn't required on Windows.

Wireless configuration was no problem, all worked fine.

No information available on whether the AverMedia NanoExpress TV card provided with the laptop works. Appears not to be supported.

Don't know yet about the built-in webcam.

Plugging in a USB mouse works fine.

I think there were some problems with getting Compiz to run properly. One must enable the proprietry NVIDIA drivers using the System->Administration->Hardware Drivers control panel.

Initially the volume setting was rather low. Right click the speaker applet and use Volume Control to increase the volume of the channel labelled 'Front'.

Bluetooth worked fine, I was able to browse contained in my phone.

Evolution is not so good for IMAP email, seems very slow. Changed to Thunderbird.

Haven't tried yet with a printer.

Media keys (volume, pause/play, etc) seem to work fine without any configuration required. Tested this with Rhythmnbox.

CPU speed scaling works fine. By default the CPU is set to work in dual core mode.

Haven't tested CD burning yet.

External USB harddrive hotplugged with no problems.