Apologies for that. I somehow missed the newer image. I just tried debian-hurd-20171101.img and got the exact same behavior - same error message, freeze, etc.
- Bug#882507: ext2fs: assertion error Bill Blough
- Bug#882507: ext2fs: assertion error Samuel Thibault
- Bug#882507: ext2fs: assertion error Bill Blough
- Processed: Re: Bug#882507: ext2fs: asserti... Debian Bug Tracking System
- Bug#882507: ext2fs: assertion error Samuel Thibault
- Bug#882507: marked as done (ext2fs: assert... Debian Bug Tracking System