A quick test series that detects and tests working and/or recognized components would be very helpful.

I rebuild/refurbish desktop/laptop pc's (turn those discarded "slow" XP boxes into fresh and fast X/K/Ubuntu machines) - and it's usually easy to "see" that video works, but finding a quick test for things like the sound is always a challenge. I know there are other hardware bits that it would be good to see that the system thinks is working (maybe something with "lshw" is a start?).

Windows hardware profiles under "my computer" used to show "working" or "?" for system bits it recognized and believed were working (like the Ethernet card - it saw it but the drivers were missing and you were off on an Internet search).

A combination list that shows what is recognized by Ubuntu and what Ubuntu thinks is working correctly along with a "click to test" icon would make validating a fresh installation simple and quick without any lagging problems (like getting a freshly installed pc to a non-Ubuntu user and they can't find how to fix the microphone since they are new and easily discouraged).

Next steps would be for that chart to offer advice on how to get those components working (website link, .deb, compile from source, no current solution for this device, etc).

This test suite could be located either at the liveCD first menu (initial screen where options are run, install, memtest, etc are located) as that would be the fastest, or as an icon on the liveCD desktop after boot-up (which would make better sense as all the normal hardware sensing programs have been run and the system is ready to use or test).