playing overture problem: dumps me back to dsktp during loading screen after intro

[mscatamaran]

i just bought Penumbra: Overture, for Linux. I have Ubuntu Hardy Heron. I'm very new to Linux so i dont know much about Linux tech stuff, i used to have Windows (went all way to Vista and i HATE Vista)... a friend installed linux a few weeks ago for me.

my game plays the intro well. sound and picture are fine. after the intro the game goes to the loading screen and stays there for a very long time. Then it dumps me back to my desktop very zoomed in and the cursor is a lot larger.. the cursor wont move and my only way to get back to a functional desktop is to either restart or just turn it off outright.

does anyone know how to fix this?