The only thing is google, goole, and then google some more.
Linux gives everyone grief. I have never had a clean install, or anything not go wrong (apart from the inital install)... every single app I have install has given me some grief I have had to google for.
About the Xine problem... try this:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/286815 It seems to be a permission problem (fix on the webpage)
Your other problems seem a bit general... Can you give us a bit more on it? Error messages maybe?
About the fonts, are you using Gnome or KDE for your windows manager?