Install problem on Dell Inspiron laptop

[David McGaffin]

Neil,

I had this same problem with my Dell Inspiron 7500 about a month ago.
Eventually, Colin sent me this reply, I downloaded a new ISO, and it
worked.  I have not tried the final CD, however.   You can read the
mailing list thread on this by searching the list archives for "bad d-i
packages' in the subject line.  Anyway, here's what Colin said:

On Fri, 2004-10-01 at 14:23 +0100, Colin Watson wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 29, 2004 at 02:31:54PM -0400, David McGaffin wrote:
> > I am trying to install Warty.  The install repeatedly hangs at the
"Load
> > installer components from CD" step with the console message:
> > 
> > user.info.anna[42767]: Not a directory
> > user.info.anna[42767]: WARNING **: bad d-i Packages file
> > user.info.anna[42767]: grep: /cdrom/dists/stable/Release: Not a
> > directory
> 
> This usually indicates DMA problems, which I believe are fixed in our
> most recent kernel images. I'll see about updating the kernels used in
> the installer.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> -- 
> Colin Watson
[cjwatson at canonical.com]
> 


- david

On Mon, 2004-12-06 at 18:03 +0000, Neil Woolford wrote:
> 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
> 
>