Ubuntu Strikes
Ubuntu 6.06 was picked as the OS of choice for our two gleaming ROVERs. As is inevitable (and inexplicable), install was a flawless success on ROVER2, but failed three or four times on the other ROVER1. However, a highly technical solution was implemented. I kept pressing retry until it installed. Brute force and ignorance = everybodys friend!!
As these machines are going to be running from a battery, it’s obviously desirable to minimise the processes that will be running on them and after a quick google around, a little process by the name of sysv-rc-conf showed its name (available via apt-get 
)A handy utility that lists in columns all the processes running and all the run levels they are switched on for. Damn useful if you wanted to keep the processes installed and just turn them off, presuming it interacts and edits the init scripts competently. I never tried it though, as for my purpose, uninstall was a better option and sysv-rc-conf was used as a handy reference list!