I have spent a few hours this weekend on trying to get the microphone
and my webcam working with no result. The webcam was recognised but
there was no clear picture and I got no way further with the microphone.
However a friend does have a webcam with builtin mic that says is linux
compatible - nowhere in the documentation can we find any mention of
linux.

Thanks for the links to the new grub articles - they are now in my black
book