[sclug] kubuntu probs/questions

[John Stumbles]

I'm grappling with kubuntu and have a few questions, possibly the main 
one being "where are good places to ask?" (I can't find any *ubuntu* 
newsgroups)

First as suggested by Tim Sutton in a thread many months back I did
 > apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
on my ubuntu 5.04 installation. I rather expected to get a kde-looking 
desktop a la SuSE (which I was using before) but got something almost 
indistinguishable from the standard gnome/gdm look but actually running 
under kdm and with some kde apps added to the menus (mostly without 
icons). Also when I put a digital camera flash card in my reader or a 
blank CD in a cr-rw drive I get the same gnome app firing up as under 
regular ubuntu.  I've just burned & tried a kubuntu live CD and that 
does look and feel kde-like. Is it possible to get my installation into 
line with the live-CD version without either reinstalling or an enormous 
amount of faffing around?

Second is probably a basic Debian/[k]ubuntu Q: how do I configure the 
system for changes to hardware? I've replaced a DVD drive with a DVD-RW 
but get errors* trying to write anything with it (with k3b). The live-CD 
can write on the drive so I assume it's something kubunto 'knows' how to 
do if I could ask it nicely.

* e.g. to a CD-R when k3b tries 'Optimum Power Calibration' it thinks 
about it for a long time and then suggests that the drive didn't like 
the media - for whatever clean blank writeable disc is in it.

tia

John Stumbles