Comment 1 for bug 254174

Also present in Intrepid beta2, if you create the images with virt-install. I wonder where the qemu packages went on 8.10

However, you don't even have to go through the fuss of trying to install debian and aborting. For me, trying to boot from an opensuse iso was sufficient to break the "initial boot". Once your install cd vanished in virt-manager (see bug #238692), you can't start the system via the command line either.