Ubuntu dual boot setup?

[LostBok]

I'm not a 100% noobie to Linux, but to give you an idea, the last system I ran Linux on was my overclocked Pentium mmx (250Mhz) and I had one of the first Linux releases of Half Life dedicated server.

I'm giving Linux another try eventually:

I'm trying to setup Ubuntu (5.10, AMD64) as a partition on my main XP drive. I currently have XPSP2 installed onto the first 40-odd Gb (of a Raptor74), so I have just over 20Gb for Ubuntu.

I assume this will be enough?

I choose - "use largest continguous free space" and it setup a 20Gb / and a 1Gb swap partition.

The installer picks up the XP OS, so I selected "yes" to installing the grub boot loader on the MBR.

But now when it gets to the reboot stage, it freezes at the end of the BIOS. No Linux, no XP, nada!!

Any suggestions?

Does it have the same problem as NT4 where you have to boot from the first 8Gb?

Any other ideas / suggestions?

I'm looking at http://www.ubuntuforums.org/, but figured I'd drop a note on here too!

[LostBok]

I've now tried stripping out the Ubuntu partiions (using the Ubuntu installer) and then installing Kubuntu, I am getting a lot of USB error messages, e.g. "device descriptor read/64, error -71"

I do have a USB multicard reader (built into one of these coolermaster fan controllers) and a powered USB hub - could these be the problem - it's going to be a nightmare disconnecting either of these!

I also have USB legacy support disabled to get around the problem with nF4 chipsets and Maxtor Plus10 drives.

Do I need to change any BIOS options to make the system Linux bootable?