> > So basically I'll end up with a system with only the 'a' series
> > installed -- and overwritten with the same packages!
>
> I've had the exact same problem. Lemme guess. Both of these systems
> have two cd-rom drives, and you probably had cds in them both at the
> time. It comes from setup detecting the wrong cd-rom drive. Specify the
> drive manually and everything should be a-ok.

Actually - no. Only one CDROM drive in both systems.