I don't know if it would work, but I would try disconnecting the hard
drive and then installing to the USB drive.

Try pendrivelinux.com. It works and you can choose several different distros
including Ubuntu.

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.

I guess if you do the installation on the USB drive
(with nothing to do with the main drive) at boot time
you can hit one of the "escape keys" to take you to
the boot sequence chooser. I've got an IBM ThinkPad T42p
and I hit F12 to access it. Check your manufacturer to
discover that key and once you turn on your computer
hit that key and it will take you to that menu, from which
you can select where to boot, in this case...the USB.
I have never done it, but it should be simple.

I've got two disks; one with Ubuntu and the other
with some other crap I need for work. So, one is
on the main hard drive caddy, the other on the
removable caddy. At boot time, I hit F12 and can
choose the removable. If I don't hit F12, it will boot
directly from the main hard drive. No GRUB.

While you may well see the second drive I do not think the USB pen
shows. At least it did not when I tried this idea out.

How old is your machine? My old dell inspiron 8100
does not show the USB at the boot sequence, but the
thinkpad does. If it is relatively new, you could check
whether the USB drive is selected on the BIOS at
system booting.

There is an option under advanced options regarding doing the
partitioning and such that (IIRC) allows you to not install grub.

However, I'd use dd to backup the boot sector, then after Ubuntu got
setup and all, just restore the original boot sector using the same (dd).

I do have a way to fix the boot sector, if it gets overwritten, but
when I do, the system will no longer boot from the Linux drive.

It looks like it is trying to start GRUB from the USB drive, and then
it crashes.

I also tried PenLinux, to the USB drive, with the same effect. Which
puzzles me, because when I installed PenLinux to a flash drive, it
worked just fine. The drive is a 160GB drive. Innards are IDE going
through USB adapter. Drive is good, because I can fdisk it, and
format it to NTFS. When GRUB was in the boot sequence the USB drive
worked fine to boot into Hardy Herron.

Being a real newbie at Linux, I am at somewhat of a loss as what to do
next. I have no idea what to edit or where, but am not ready to give
up.

The nice thing about my old computer was the hard drives were all in
caddies, so could boot from whichever one was installed at the
moment.

There has got to be a way, just finding it is the trick.

Try:-

Sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
You always eed to be super user to edit system files (therefore good security).

The reason I believe the HD drive no. changes is when you installed, the USB
drive was hd1 and when you clean boot into the usb, the first drive from the
bios boot, that makes it hd0 hence the change.

Hp that does the trick!

Worked!

Exactly the problem and exactly what was needed to fix it. Boots
straight into Ubuntu with no problems now, when boot from USB drive is
selected.