Swapping the optical drive for another one seems to have "fixed" this.
Still, the original optical drive *has* worked in the last week to make 3 installations (Ubuntu Desktop 10.04, Ubuntu alternate with encrypted LVM, Debian testing net-install, all on i386), so I'm perplexed. The "new" optical drive that appears to work now is recognized as: scsi 0:0:0:0: CD-ROM MATSHITA UJ-841Db 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 sr0: scsi3-mmc drive 24x/24x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray With the same medium (CD) that I was getting all the "Sense" error before, no errors now... It would appear to be a case of failing optical drive, if it wasn't (a) failing at exactly the same point of the installation (right before installing .debs to the target system) (b) experienced by so many others. -- Alternate install fails requesting same disc https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/360460 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs