Mike Morton writes:
The installation process (on all of the half-dozen other distros I've tried) goes belly up about half way through.
Have you tried Mepis (www.mepis.com)? I've just found it, and started playing with it, and it seems very good at hardware detection. It's a Live CD which can then be used to install, so if the live CD works the install should do. Debian based. Second most popular (hits per page) disto at distrowatch this month, on the Linux Format cover DVD this month (although there's a newer version on the Mepis site).
Mark Rogers, More Solutions Ltd