[ale] Dell Mini 12 Ubuntu problems

[Ken Cochran]

Hey folks, I have a misbehaving Dell Mini 12.
It runs Ubuntu, I think 8.0.4 (can't tell where to find the
version) with uname -a reporting kernel 2.6.24-19.

Trying to start the web browser (firefox?), it appears to load
(on the taskbar) but it shuts down & never displays anything.
I get the same thing when trying to access any system help.
The OS appears to be up to date when checking & fetching the
package info.  If I try running firefox from a terminal window I
get a message about incompatible GRE.  I'm not finding anything
unusual/useful in /var/log/syslog or Xorg.0.log.

Where can I find some troubleshooting hints/FAQs for this setup?
So far, the only thing I can make work is terminal.
Would also like to make sure such things as Java and Adobe
bits are up to date too.

-kc