I recently posted a problem I was having installing a "special-kernel" with the boot disk during the installation procedure. Gilbert Ramirez responded indicating he had the same problem (error in format archive) with these kernels, and the culpret was the "modules.tgz" file on the boot disk. It is corrupt.
I can verify that. I needed to do what Gilbert did, and that was to gunzip, un-tar, re-tar, and re-gzip the file, and put it back on the boot disk. The install went fine after that. (I did remove a module or two I wouldn't need to be sure it would fit back on the floppy). Of course if your computer is in the state of installing debian, you won't be able to do these things on THAT machine, and if you don't have a spare linux/unix computer, your ingenuity skills will be challenged. You can test the modules.tgz file on the boot disk by doing a "tar -tzvf <floppy mount point>/modules.tgz" looking for an "unexpected EOF" error message at the end of the tar list. Steve Millard Harrisburg, Pa. USA - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - It ain't what you don't know that hurts you, but what you do know that just ain't so. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -