I found the source of the problem, and part of the solution. The
issue now is to implement it.

I did manage to install 8.04 on a USB hard drive (160 gig), and not
destroy the master boot record of the main hard drive, by doing an
manual install and asking that GRUB be written to the USB drive. The
problem was that it would not boot into Linux when selected. Windows
on the main drive would boot, and Linux would crash during the boot.

The issue is with GRUB not installing "properly". When I say
"properly", I mean that GRUB reads drives differently than Linux. How
so? I'm not exactly sure. But there is info at the Super Grub site
on the details, most of which are over my head at this point.

So then I was getting GRUB error 17. After more searching, God bless
Google, I found some answers.

Now the issue is to edit the Menu.lst

It currently looks like this...

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd1,0)

It needs to look like this...
title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,0)

I've deleted a lot of the file for brevity, and have tested that these
are the only changes.

Now the problem is that I can find the file. I can edit the file.
But I cannot save the file. I've tried it inside of Ubuntu. I've
tried it, from Knoppix to edit while Ubuntu isn't running, and no
matter what I get told I do not have the rights.

How do I edit menu.lst (found in Boot/Grub), and manage to save the file.

Editing each time I boot may be fun for a while, but it is likely to
be less charming in say... Oh.... 15 minutes ago. ;-)

In the meantime, Ubuntu is up and running. Sound, and networking are
working. As a matter of fact I'm using Firefox in Ubuntu right now.

I am so terribly pleased with myself, as a Linux and Ubuntu novice.
And I am very grateful for the help of all who have responded here and
in the Linux newbies mailing list. The credit is much more yours than
mine.