u5/u10 install issues

[Sam Creasey <sammy@sammy.net>]

(first off, I apologize if this has become a FAQ, but I'l a little
frustrated, so I figured I might as well try the list).

I'm having some difficulty installing debian onto my Ultra 5.  It seems
that the kernel has some issue reading from an internal IDE disk (this
first manifests itself when trying to read the partition tables at boot:)

CMD646: IDE controller at PCI slot 01:03.0
CMD646: chipset revision 3
CMD646: chipset revision 0x03, MultiWord DMA Force Limited
CMD646: 100% native mode on irq 4,7e0
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0x1fe02c00020-0x1fe02c00027, BIOS settings: hda:pio,
hdb:pio
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0x1fe02c00028-0x1fe02c0002f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio,
hdd:pio
hda: WDC WD800BB-00CAA1, ATA DISK drive
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with
idebus=xx
hdc: CRD-8322B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1fe02c00000-0x1fe02c00007,0x1fe02c0000a on irq 4,7e0
ide1 at 0x1fe02c00010-0x1fe02c00017,0x1fe02c0001a on irq 4,7e0 (shared
with ide0)
Partition check:
 hda:end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00 (hda), sector 0
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00 (hda), sector 2
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00 (hda), sector 4
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00 (hda), sector 6
end_request: I/O error, dev 03:00 (hda), sector 8

and so on for all of the even sectors it attempts to read.

I've tried booting the installer on both an Ultra 5 and an Ultra 10, using
2 different IDE cables, and 2 different drives on both systems.  Results
are identical.

Oddly, the system seems to be able to write to the drive (the installer
seems to be able to create and mount a filesystem), and even seems to
install, but, on the next boot (not surprisingly), it's unable to read the
partition table and won't boot.

I've tried this with 3.1r0a, testing, and unstable.  Results are
(again) identical.

Any ideas?

-- Sam