I use gparted and is available in the repositories. it is also installed
on the live CD.
I start every install selecting "Try Ubuntu" from the menu. This insures
that everything works to start. I then use gparted to change the size on
the disk and make sure that the harddisk is partitioned right. The
primary will only allow 4 partitions and many new computers are settup
with all 4 partitions on the primary taken. Why manufactures like HP
don't set up the harddrive with extended partitions I don't know. The
tools partition can be saved and removed not worring if you loose it
because they can be downloaded many times from the manufacturers web site.

Because of this failing on the manufacturers part, I make sure this does
not need to be corrected.

I then resize the harddrive, add and extended partition and then click
on the install Icon. If you can connect to the internet then drivers
are obtained automatically if available. You can use; 3g dongle, usb
dongle wifi card that drivers come with ubuntu (free, non-propriatary,
approved), or lan cat-5.

Updates are taken care of as well as drivers needed are loaded. You
still have to install them by clicking on the icon on the top bar or the
hardware item in the system menu. When connected to the net the install
takes longer but the job is complete that way.

It sounds intimidating but it's not. Because it sounds intimidating,
that is why I install for many people. The more installs I do the easer
it gets. Learning to resize before the install has made installs a lot
easer because there is less troubleshooting with that approach. The
connection to the Internet also lowers the effort required.