You should try popping in a recent Ubuntu disk. Older (circa 2008) distributions had trouble with the hardware, but I have a 2006 MacBook Pro that "just works"

You should try popping in a recent Ubuntu disk. Older (circa 2008) distributions had trouble with the hardware, but I have a 2006 MacBook Pro that "just works" with 32-bit Ubuntu 10.04. I even Bootcamped the hard disk and dual boot Snow Leopard and Lucid.