Failure while configuring base packages

[Udo Hoerhold <maillists@goodontoast.com>]

Hi,

I've posted about this before, but the thread got hijacked by someone 
off-topic, and I have more info than before...

I'm trying to install Debian on a PC with a Promise Ultra 100 controller.  The 
onboard controller is hda - hdd and the Promise controller is hde - hdh.  
I've tried using both hdf1 and hdg1 as the root partition.

The install fails at the "install base system" step with the message "failure 
while configuring base packages".  I'm installing from CD, I've tried two 
different CD's and I've used them successfully on other machines, so I know 
they're good.  I also tried installing from the network.  I've tried swapping 
out the hard drive to verify it wasn't a hardware problem.  I've done other 
installs on this machine successfully (Gentoo).

The only thing I can think of is that the Debian setup doesn't like the 
Promise controller for some reason.  Does anyone know if any workarounds, or 
is there a different cause that I'm not thinking of?

Thanks,

Udo Hoerhold