it simply would not install grub into the root partition, insisting on installing it in the mbr. If I told it to install into the root partition, it would fail terminally at that point in the install. I don't want grub to manage that stuff; I've used LVM from OS/2 for many years and it works fine for booting linux systems as well as the other systems I've had on the machine, plus the good times with the dynamic repartitioning under OS/2 sans booting, which is sweet to say the least.
I pretty much have this set up to the point where it's equivalent to ubuntu, and it seems to use the same package stuff (ie- synaptic), so I'm not sure what I get out of using ubuntu rather than etch.
Also, is there some way I can put ubuntu on top of etch or some such? I'd rather not have to repeat the work I've already done on setting this up.... seeing as I actually have Something That Works.