Install problem on Dell Inspiron laptop

[Neil Woolford]

I'm trying to install Ubuntu, from the official pressed CD, on my
Inspiron 7500 laptop.  (Old, from the year 2000.)

The process starts fine, but ends with a blue screen that just stays...

If I Alt+f4 to the install console I find that the machine is stuck in a
loop;

As I can't seem to stop the loop without rebooting, I can't transcribe
the screen exactly, but the following elements are repeated.

Process anna[4328] repeatedly warns 'bad d-i packages file'
/cdrom/dists/stable/Release: not a directory

And so on for ever.

If I go to console Alt+f2 I can browse down into the cdrom filesystem;
I do notice that /cdrom/dists/stable/Release doesn't appear to be a
valid path...

Previous install problems on a pair of desktop machines were solved by
temporarily fitting a new CD drive that supports DMA;  I don't have this
option on the laptop.  Booting with 'linux ide=nodma doesn't seem to
help.

Suggestions welcomed, as I'd really like to have Ubuntu running on this
machine in place of the current SuSE 9.

I'd even consider the horrors of a floppy/network install if I have to!

Neil