Doing some searching, I found bug #602568, which seems to have much in relation with this issue. Taking some hints from there, I found that the issue seems to be a parted problem related to the small additional USB stick mentioned in my message #1 as "Other USB stick".
Trying to use parted from the testing-installer, I get the error messages below, reporting a bug in parted. Without this USB stick present, installation of squeze (where I originally met the problem) progresses past partitioning as expected, without problems. I.e.: I am able to partition, format partitions and choose mount points. Some of the issues raised in 602568 still seems to be open, see message #81 in that thread. The failure of parted is not detected or properly reported by the installer (or the layers between the installer and parted). That must be fixed. There is also a new parted bug, it seems. As in #605286 there is an assertion, but it is in another function. Please advice on how to proceed: Should this bug be changed to some parted package, or should I open a coupl of new bugs? With kind regards Asbjørn S. Error message using parted in debian installer on small USB stick: ------------------------------------------------------------------ Installer-image: debian-testing-amd64-netinst.iso, dated 20120114-15:10 Method: During installation, entered below command from a console. Command: parted /dev/sdd unit co print unit s print Output: You found a bug in GNU Parted! Here's what you have to do: Don't panic! The bug has most likely not affected any of your data. Help us to fix this bug by doing the following: Check whether the bug has already been fixed by checking the last version of GNU Parted that you can find at: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted/ Please check this version prior to bug reporting. If this has not been fixed yet or if you don't know how to check, please visit the GNU Parted website: http://www.gnu.org/software/parted for further information. Your report should contain the version of this release (2.3) along with the error message below, the output of parted DEVICE unit co print unit s print and the following history of commands you entered. Also include any additional information about your setup you consider important. Assertion (head_size <= 63) at ../../../libparted/labels/dos.c:662 in function probe_partition_for_geom() failed. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20120114230339.ga22...@stud.ntnu.no