On a whim I tried the KDE installer DVD. I see the prcess goes through all the steps, through assigning mount points and produces a bootable system. All that's needed is to find the difference between the cd and dvd install process.
For my needs, I'll hang in with the Kubuntu DVD for now and install the regular Ubuntu desktop after the KDE has been installed. -- install fails with no mount points after gparted https://launchpad.net/bugs/50347 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs