Have you guys heard of http://www.discourse.org/

It was started by Jeff Atwood from Stackexchange.com

I don't know much about it yet, but it does look interesting as a new take on forum software.

["These differences affect the way you use the physical reset button to perform an upload if the auto-reset isn't working."]

See this section of Leonardo guide:
http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/ArduinoLeonardoMicro#toc12

Pay special attention to the third paragraph that starts with, "These differences affect the way you use the physical reset button to perform an upload if the auto-reset isn't working."

It sounds like the zip file is corrupt.

Delete it and download again from the Arduino website.

Once downloaded you unzip it to a location of your choice. Personally, I always download mine to c:\arduino\

[Drivers]

The information in the guide is not accurate.

Here are the proper steps:

Look for Unknown Device under Other devices in Device Manager.
Right click the Unknown Device in Device Manager
Select Update Driver Software
Select Browse my computer for software
Click Browse button
Select the Drivers folder under the location of your Arduino software installation. (Do not select the FTDI folder inside the Drivers folder)
Click OK
Click Next

I am not sure if I understand your question, but if you are asking if you can power the board from +5V, it is not recommened.

See here for more details:
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,82046.msg758170.html#msg758170

You should be able to use avrdude in the Arduino IDE package.

The following blog entry should help:
http://blog.mmccoo.com/?p=249

Do you know what version firmware is on the USBasp?

I think you need at least v1.4 firmware to program parts larger than 128kb

That may explain the issue you are having.

VID_03EB is an Atmel vendor id.

It looks like the 16u2 USB to serial chip is in DFU mode.

You might be able to use the FLIP software from Atmel to reprogram the USB to serial code firmware in the 16u2.

Here is some more info about the process:
http://arduino.cc/en/Hacking/DFUProgramming8U2

Have you seen this rather long thread about bricked 2560's using external power and USB at the same time:
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,82046.0.html

If you don't want to read the whole thread, you can jump to final answer here:
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,82046.msg758170.html#msg758170

What bootloader was installed on that 328? That determines what board you need to select in the IDE.

If it came with the Optiboot bootloader, then you would need to select UNO, for example.

 rfleisch,

Is this the blog you where looking for?
http://www.robopeak.net/blog/?p=131

Do you have the Serial Monitor open or any other application connected to that serial port?
You need to close the Serial Monitor or disconnect from that serial port before you upload again.

Otherwise, avrdude from the previous upload may not have terminated properly and still have that port open.

Open Task Manager to see if you have any avrdude processes still hanging around after you finish the upload.

This is expected behavior with the Leonardo. I am surprised you did not see this behavior with your previous OS.

The Leonardo shows up as two different CDC devices. When the bootloader is running it shows up as a CDC device with a unique device ID and then during normal operation, it shows up as another CDC device with a different device ID.

Windows will see these as two different serial devices and assign a different comm port number to each one.

When uploading to the Leonardo, the IDE will reset the device to initiate the bootloader. That is when you see one of the ports disappear and the other port appear. Once the upload is complete, the sketch will run and switch to the previous port.

It's possible that on your previous systems, you had the same com port number assigned to each CDC device, so that it looked like the same port. However, you still should have seen it briefly disappear and then reappear during the upload.

The Comm Socket is the correct place to connect your FTDI cable.
The "Foca: A Tiny USB to UART Tool" serves the same purpose as your FTDI cable.

You will need to put a header on the Gboard and then rearrange the pins on the FTDI cable to match the following pinout:

Gboard:         FTDI:

NC
GND             black   - GND
VDD33           red     - VCC
Rx              orange  - TXD
Tx              yellow  - RXD
GND             NC
DTR             green   - RTS#

I think you might have better luck with this Arduino installer package:
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,118440.0.html