Ubuntu Studio 8.10 problems

I have borrowed an Edirol FA-66 audio interface from a friend. The challenge now is to set up a working system with my newly purchased Sony laptop. My current OS is Ubuntu Studio 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) - but, sadly, this has to change.

There are, as I have learned, a couple of serious issues with Ubuntu 8.10 making it quite hard to set up a working environment with a real time kernel and a firewire interface:

The real time kernel no longer works with dual core processors - apparently, this can be fixed by downgrading to an older kernel. No luck for me yet, though.

libfreebob, the firewire driver, drops packets and generates Xruns.

From what I've read on forums, running 8.04 (Hardy Heron) is a better option, so first thing in the morning I'll install that instead.

Losing real time capabilities is quite a blow to the appeal of Ubuntu Studio. Hopefully, with Ubuntu 9.04, both of these issues will be resolved. But until April, I'll go with Hardy.