I ran into so many problems running linux at all - video card driver issues, sound issues, networking issues, I spent more time fixing it than actually running anything.

in the end I gave up and reformated the partition and installed Windows 7 RC 1. which works perfectly.

be warned. Linux is no cure all or an easy OS to trouble shoot. (c'mon. if the graphics driver is bad, did it never occur to have a default graphics mode to fall back to?)