Debian hangs at “Select and Install Software”

Recently, I wanted to use Debian 5.0.3 Lenny (for work).

The first step was to find the ISO.
I couldn't find it on the Debian website. Fortunately I could find it on these both sites: http://www.debiantutorials.com/download-debian-iso/
 http://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/archive/5.0.3/i386/iso-cd/

After downloading the file debian-503-i386-netinst.iso (~150Mo), I'm ready to create a VM using VirtualBox.

The installation is easy but it freezes at the screen "Select and Install Software".

The way to solve this is the following:

• start a new installation 
• just before 'Select and install software.' I could see a popup about a warning. Press alt+F2 
• press enter to activate the console 
• run the command to place you into the system you are installing

  chroot /target

• run the command to install the keyring

  aptitude install debian-archive-keyring

• run the command

  aptitude update

• run the 3 following commands

  gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 6070D3A1
  gpg --armor --export 6070D3A1 | apt-key add -
  apt-get update
  

• press alt+F1 to go back to the installer 
• continue the installation as normal to the end 

And that's it !

Here is a quick link in case you want to cross compile:
http://wiki.micromint.com/index.php/Debian_ARM_Cross-compile

source: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=12259