Ubuntu Hardy Herron has been released for a week now so I decided to give it a shot on my notebook and try it out.  This is by far the best Ubuntu version yet and was the simplest to install and configure of all the versions that I've used in the past.  My notebook, a Compaq Presario V3118AU has had a few issues with Linux in the past so I was a little weary about installing it over my Gutsy install (which was working fine).  Well I had no need to be concerned, everything went fantastically well.  The following is a brief documentation of my install.

SETUP:

My original setup had my 60gig hard drive partitioned into a single 40gig partition for Windows XP Home with the remainder devoted to Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon x86_64.  As I haven't used Windows XP in over a year my plan was to install the new Ubuntu Hardy Herron x86_64 in the partition that housed Windows XP.  I wanted to keep my Gutsy Gibbon install in case there was an issue with Hardy Herron.

My hardware is fairly standard, with a couple of items that aren't natively supported under Linux.  My processor is a AMD Turion X86_64 Dual Core.  My video card is a nVidia Geforce 6150 GO.  I've got 512 MB of RAM and a Broadcom Wireless card that died a while ago (I just use Ethernet at the moment).  The nVidia card and the Broadcom card are not natively supported under Linux (well, they are but they're not Open Source).

PROCEDURE:

To begin with I downloaded a copy of Ubuntu Hardy Herron x86_64 and burnt it to CD.  After booting into the CD I performed a Check Disk (all OK) and then booted into the 'live CD'.  I always do this to see how my hardware performs with no modifications.  In this case all was as good as can be expected.  I had audio, my monitor displayed the correct resolution (1280 x 800), and my ethernet connection worked.  I was able to successfully open all of the files in the 'Examples' folder.

Before I started the install I wanted to format my Windows XP partition for this install.  To do this I selected System -> Administration -> Partition Editor.  The first partition listed was my Windows XP install.  This was located at /dev/sda1 and was formated as NTFS.  To format this partition I simply right clicked it and selected 'Format to ext3' and selecting 'Apply'.  The formating took 17 seconds.

Next was the install proper.  I simply selected the 'Install' icon on the desktop.  For a normal install the default options should suffice.  Mine was a little different, however, as I'm using a custom partition.  When option two in the install procedure was presented I simply selected 'Manual', selected partition sda1, marked it as the root partition (/) and marked it as mount.

I just followed the prompts for the other options and when the install was over I had a fully functioning Ubuntu Hardy Herron x86_64 installation.

I'll follow this post up in the next few days with some of the configurations that I've performed so that I can use my notebook in all the ways that I need it.