Bug#233294: installation report - tar: Unrecognised file type

[George Kumengi <George.Kumengi@grc.nasa.gov>]

Package: installation-reports

Debian-installer-version: Daily Build businesscard net install 2/17/2004
uname -a: Linux debian 2.4.24-1-386 #3 Wed Feb 4 18:58:18 EST 2004 i686 unknown
Date: 2/17/2004 4:30 PM EST
Method: Booted off the CD.  I typed "net" at the lilo prompt.  I installed from grc.nasa.gov domain through a firewall.

Machine:  Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard. (Nforce 2 chipset)
Processor: AMD Athlon (Barton Core) XP 2600+
Memory: 512 MB
Root Device: IDE
Root Size/partition table:
        29 GB ext3 mounted to /
        1GB     swap
Output of lspci: none

Base System Installation Checklist:

Initial boot worked:    [O]
Configure network HW:   [O]
Config network:         [O]
Detect CD:              [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives:     [O]
Partition hard drives:  [O]
Create file systems:    [O]
Mount partitions:       [O]
Install base system:    [E]
Install boot loader:    [ ]
Reboot:                 [ ]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Comments/Problems:

Everything works fine until I get a "Base system installation error""
debootstrap program exited with an error (return value 1)

Virtual Console 3 says:
tar: Unrecognised file type