Thank you very much ncafferkey.

Usually one would make such vital information a sticky thread, but alas ... I'll bookmark instead

PS: not directly AROS, but since it is desktop by default, please also note this post from BSzili about Magellan and ftp module crash.

PPS: @paolone: thanks mate, i didn't know that was possible.

To make things a bit easier, I want to list in one place some of the low-level bugs that might affect people installing the new version of Icaros Desktop, and how to work around them:

<ul>
<li> The native SATA/AHCI driver doesn't always work. If you get errors related to ahci.device, try disabling it. Press E when your chosen boot entry is highlighted in the GRUB menu, scroll down to the ahci.device entry, and delete it with Ctrl-K. Then press Ctrl-X to boot. If your disk isn't accessible at all with this change, you might need to change the SATA controller to IDE legacy mode in the BIOS: however, making this change will likely cause problems booting Windows on the same machine (if it's already installed). To disable ahci.device permanently, edit the text file "SYS:Arch/pc/grub/grub/cfg", and remove the ahci.device line from all boot entries you intend to use.

<li> The ATA driver doesn't always work. If you get errors related to ata.device, try using the alternative, older version provided: Press E when your chosen boot entry is highlighted in the GRUB menu, scroll down to the ata.device entry, and change it to read "module /Devs/Alt/ata.device". Then press Ctrl-X to boot. To make this change permanent, edit the text file "SYS:Arch/pc/grub/grub/cfg", and change the path to ata.device in all boot entries you intend to use.

<li> Obsolete - <i>The AROS NTFS filesystem driver doesn't always work. In some cases, ntfs-handler locks up during boot if you have NTFS (i.e. "Windows") partitions on your PC. To disable ntfs-handler, move it from "L:" to "SYS:Storage".</i> Icaros Desktop will use a new NTFS3G handler, which does not share the same problems. This workaround is still good for older icaros desktop versions and for AROS in general, when the old AROS NTFS handler is used.

<li> Obsolete, themes were fixed in Icaros 2.0.3. Just disabled themeing if you need that with the Theme prefs program - <i>AROS won't boot when some themes are selected. Avoid choosing the os3.1 or mason themes. If you want a similar appearance to the os3.1 theme, move "C:Decoration" to "SYS:Storage". If you've already selected a broken theme, you can recover the situation as follows:
<ol>
<li> Boot from your installation media.
<li> Move "AROS:C/Decoration" as described above.
<li> Reboot from your HD, and select a working theme.
<li> Restore "Decoration" to its original location ("C:").
</i></ol>

<li> The "noacpi" boot option causes all PCI devices to be invisible to AROS. Although disk drives may still work, network, sound etc. drivers won't.

<li> Changing video resolution may cause a crash, especially when using the Intel GMA driver. I'm not sure if the new resolution will still be saved for the next boot. If not, you can work around the problem by temporarily switching to Wanderer in Icaros preferences.

<li> Some VirtualBox settings are incompatible with AROS. Do not select ICH9 or ICH6 chipsets, nor SATA drives. Only use AC97 audio.

</ul>

I'll probably add to this and/or correct it where necessary.