debian stable install on 8500

[dylan <debeaudette@ucdavis.edu>]

in what seemed to be a standard install of debian woody onto an 8500 i
encountered some strange behavior.

here are the specs on the 8500:
4gb HD
212mb RAM (confirmed to work in another 8500 running woody)

[booting from the installer kernel or the stock 2.4 kernel]

installing off of a CDROM or over the network results in one of the
following errors:

1. debootstrap exited with an error (return value 1)
2. failure configuring base packages (this will be repeated 5 times)

i notice that when i try to install the base system with the 2.4 kernel,
even though i get an error message, i am still able to boot the machine form
the hard disk.... however, it hangs when trying to set the time zone.


any ideas on this strange behavior?

thanks

dylan