First of all, thanks everyone for taking the time to reply.
Mike - I totally get what you say about logically searching for the cause of the problem. As I see it, I know the hardware works as the same hardware works 100% with WD on XP. I'm 99.9% certain comm 1 is the correct comm port, and I only have one serial port on this laptop. Short of reinstalling XP and seeing which comm works I won't be 100% certain. I have ascertained that comm 1 is accessible to software under my Ubuntu install, and I can receive data on it at 9600 baud with minicom. Why logserial won't compile I don't know, but I can't see it will add anything to what minicom is telling me (i.e. data is being received on ttyS0 at 9600 baud).
Coyote - It's encouraging to hear<you have the same setup working. I'm not giving up yet!

I may reset the console, but I'm receiving data on the serial port OK!
Yves - I have tried as you suggested. Here are what seem to be the relevant bits of the output:
Opening the serial port /dev/ttyS0
Saving serial configuration
Serial port /dev/ttyS0 opened File desc = 16
setting speed to 9600
ser_read : Entering
ser_read error Resource temporarily unavailable
Read size -1 :
ser_read : Exiting
Thanks,
Martin