Dell Vostro 1500 Triple Boot XP Media Direct

I just got a new Dell Vostro Here are the specs:

• Vostro 1500, Intel Core 2 Duo T5470, 1.6GHz, 800Mhz FSB, 2M L2 Cache
• 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD display with TrueLife for Vostro 1500
• 2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 DIMM
• 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS (specifically chose this for better Linux compat)
  
• 250GB Hard Drive, 5400RPM, SA160, for Dell Vostro 1500 Notebook
• Genuine Windows XP Home Edition, SP2 (either this or Vista YUCK!)
• Integrated 10/100 Network Cardand Modem, for Inspiron (Detected from Installer)
• 8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+R write capability
• Intel 4965AGN Wireless-N Mini card (specifically chosen for Linux Compat, we shall see)
• No Built in Camera 1500 (trust me , you don't wanna see my ugly mug)
• Dell Wireless 355 BlueTooth Module, (2.0+EDR) (have no idea why I chose this, besides cool factor)
• Factory Enable 20GB Primary Partition (just to make it easier fer me)

I blew away the Windows XP and Dell Media Direct partition, but then I decided I wanted to play
with Dell Media Direct.
Sadly Dell Media Direct requires Windows XP to be installed.

So I booted with the Dell Media Direct disc. It gave me the option of using all the space on the harddisk or specify a size of the c:\ drive. I used the "use entire disk" option.
When the Dell Media Direct finished its process, it requested the XP install disc.
I ejected the Dell Media Direct disc and inserted the XP install disc and pressed enter.
After the looooong XP install, I put the Dell Media Disc back in so it can finish installing.

After the install I shutdown the machine and pressed the "Home" button and Dell Direct Media did its first time config and all was set. I exited out of Dell Direct Media and booted into Windows.

I installed Partition Magic (I was too lazy to download a Knoppix or Gnoppix disc image)
I shrunk the c: drive to a mere 20 GigaBytes. I rebooted and upon reboot Partition Magic did the drive shrink operation. After Partition Magic finished , I booted into Windows XP and all seemed well. I shutdown the machine and pressed the "Home" button and Dell media Direct worked.

I turned on the laptop and pressed 'F2" to get into the BIOS (this gave me time to insert the Ubuntu CD). I exited out of the BIOS and the machine booted with the Ubuntu Studio CD.

Network:
The installer did not detect my Intel Wireless Network card, so I connected the machine via ethernet to my network. It grabbed an IP off of my DHCP server and the install proceeded.

Disk Partition:
This is my partition scheme:

• /dev/sda1 FAT16 47 MB for Dell Utility
• /dev/sda2 NTFS 20 GB for Windows XP
• /dev/sda4 EXT3 100 MB for /boot for Ubuntu Studio
• /dev/sda3 extended
• /dev/sda7 LVM 60 GB for Ubuntu Studio
• /dev/sda5 FAT32 for Dell Media Direct (I suspect)
• /dev/sda6 NTFS for Shared Data (the rest of the space of the drive)

Logical Volumes:

LV     VG     Attr   LSize
homelv rootvg -wi-ao  4.00G                        
rootlv rootvg -wi-ao 10.00G                        
swaplv rootvg -wi-ao  4.00G

I am using logical volumes to I can move space around as needed.

The install went well and these are the minor issues I faced after installing:

NVIDIA Card:
By Default Ubuntu uses the opensource driver.
I enabled the NVidia Driver by going to:
System Menu then -->Administration-->Restricted Drivers Manager
I enabled the NVidia Driver it did its thing and I rebooted and all was well.

Sound Issue:
Sound was not working so I had to do :

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-rt

I rebooted and sound worked

Wireless Network:
The Wireless Device was recognized from first boot.
I installed kwlan and was able to setup wireless networking.
Good thing I chose the Intel Wireless Device.

Extra Software:
I installed extra software by first installing AutoMatix

Obligatory Screenshot