<p>I'll submit a bug report to the developers via Launchpad as I believe this to be a flaw in one of the post-install Ubuntu 10.04LTS updates.</p> <p>UPDATE - 06/03/10 - I just reformatted the laptop's hard drive > put on Ubuntu 10.04LTS (32-bit) Desktop Edition > did NOT download any updates > all is fine.</p> <p>Issue resolved (for me at least).</p> <p>Maybe I'll update when the first or second point release comes out.</p>