help finding appropriate list for newbie support

[holiday]

Sorry if this is not the right place for this question. I am in Canada so...

Please tell me where I should post this question, or what I should read 
before posting. I have made a number of RedHat and Fedora installations 
so I'm not a complete linux newbie, but I am new to non-RedHat distros.

I tried the Ubuntu 5.10 preview release live cd and loved it. On a 
Toshiba A70 laptop. Ubuntu found my wireless, my USB sound card, my 
camera, flawlessly set up the 1280x800 resolution without any help at 
all. I was delighted.

But I am having difficulty with the installation.

1. For the live cd, I had to use noacpi nolapci (or something like that) 
but on the install I had to disable the debian-installer/framebuffer. 
Where can I find a detailed discussion of these parameters? What is the 
consequence of using them? I could not find anything in the wiki.

2. I'm having difficulty managing the partitioning. Is the NTFS problem 
still a problem? Do I need still need a separate partitioning utility. 
Even if I do, I found the UI quite frightening. I was never really sure 
what was going to happen. Is there a detailed discussion of how to do 
this - exactly what keys to press, I mean. I know there is good 
information about partitioning in general, but I need very detailed 
documentation on the Ubuntu installer process. On one pass through I had 
to hit the power button to abort what appeared to be a certain disaster.

Once again, I apologize if this is not the appropriate forum. I am eager 
to explore Ubuntu and will gladly fill in gaps where I am able.

Thank you.