how to access lvm partitions with live CD?

[Mertens Bram]

Hi

I'm currently running debian stable (etch) on two machines and I'm
considering switching to (X)ubuntu.

So far I have tested with a live CD of Edgy Eft (6.10) on both
machines and everything appears to be supported out-of-the-box as good
or even better than it is now.

I'll even be able to get beryl running on both systems!

Mounting the root filesystem wasn't a problem on either system but the
other partitions are created in lvm.

Is it possible to:
a) mount the existing lvm-partitions in a "live session"?
   - the lvm tools aren't installed, and I found no information about
     this in the wiki or through google so I assume it won't be as
     simple as aptitude getting the lvm-tools
b) if I configure a "live session" just the way I want to will this
configuration be used when I click the install icon on the desktop?  I
mean will it "simply" dump the current configuration to disk or will I
need to reinstall/reconfigure the applications I installed during the
session?
c) edit the sources.list of my existing installation and aptitude
dist-upgrade into ubuntu?
   - that would appear to be the easiest way to move from one distro
     to the other with a minimal risk of data-loss or even down-time
     other than rebooting to get the ubunutu-kernel.
   - Because the two distro's are quite alike I would assume this is
     possible, off course there's the risk that my current
     configuration would somehow cause problems with ubuntu's patched
     software versions.
   - has this sort of thing been done?  Is it
     difficult/dangerous/documented?

Thanks in advance!

Bram Mertens

-- 
# Mertens Bram "M8ram"   <bram-mertens at linux.be>   Linux User #349737 #
# debian stable             kernel 2.6.18-4-686    i686    1024MB RAM #
# 00:12:11 up 5 days, 11 min,  6 users,  load average: 0.01, 0.09, 0.09 #