Comment 6 for bug 474196

I discovered that the kernel was missing after installing Ubuntu 9.10 from a USB drive. Here is what I did to complete the installation successfully:

1) Make a bootable USB drive from ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso using USB Startup Disk Creator.
2) Boot to USB live session.
3) Unmount the USB filesystem:
        $ sudo umount -l -r -f /cdrom
4) Delete all partitions on the internal hard drive using GParted. (Just in case these interfere somehow)
5) Install Ubuntu 9.10 to the entire internal hard drive. Do not reboot.
6) Verify that /media/internal-drive/boot/vmlinuz* does not exist.
7) Make sure there is a working internet connection.
8) Chroot into the new installation:
        sudo mount -t proc proc /media/internal-drive/proc
        sudo mount -t sysfs sysfs /media/internal-drive/sys
        sudo mount -o bind /dev /media/internal-drive/dev
        sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /media/internal-drive/etc/
        sudo chroot /media/internal-drive/
9) Reinstall linux-image-2.6.31-14-generic:
        apt-get clean
        apt-get update
        apt-get install --reinstall linux-image-2.6.31-14-generic
10) Verify that /media/internal-drive/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic does exist.
11) Reboot into new system.

Curiously, the missing kernel problem did not occur when installing to another computer earlier with the same USB drive. And I still have no idea why this happened in the first place. How can I be sure that this hasn't broken other packages as well?