Correction: The all-red error screens were complaints from *debootstrap*, not debconf.
Diagnosis: Using "Alt-F2" to open another shell when the the red screen appeared on tty1 gave the opportunity to issue "tail /var/log/syslog". The first red screen was apparently also caused by trouble with building the initramfs. So was the second.
Workaround: The first time an error arose ("debootstrap warning: failure while configuring required packages"), I selected "Continue" in the installer. The second time, I used "Alt-F2" to get a root shell. Saying "mount" revealed that my designated root partition was already mounted on /target, with some directories already in place. I copied the missing modules from the running system to the system under construction before going back to "Alt-F1" and saying "Continue". The command I issued in that root shell was something like
# cp -a /lib/modules/2.6.32-21-generic /target/lib/modules/
Comments: The reputation of Ubuntu Studio will be enhanced if the arcane steps detailed above could be made redundant by suitable changes to the installation media. Thanks for considering this.
Correction: The all-red error screens were complaints from *debootstrap*, not debconf.
Diagnosis: Using "Alt-F2" to open another shell when the the red screen appeared on tty1 gave the opportunity to issue "tail /var/log/syslog". The first red screen was apparently also caused by trouble with building the initramfs. So was the second.
Workaround: The first time an error arose ("debootstrap warning: failure while configuring required packages"), I selected "Continue" in the installer. The second time, I used "Alt-F2" to get a root shell. Saying "mount" revealed that my designated root partition was already mounted on /target, with some directories already in place. I copied the missing modules from the running system to the system under construction before going back to "Alt-F1" and saying "Continue". The command I issued in that root shell was something like 2.6.32- 21-generic /target/ lib/modules/
# cp -a /lib/modules/
Comments: The reputation of Ubuntu Studio will be enhanced if the arcane steps detailed above could be made redundant by suitable changes to the installation media. Thanks for considering this.