Update: A quick google scan suggests "ia32-libs" is a nasty little beasty with a habit of crashing Ubuntu 12.04 and others. Looks like "ia32-libs" has been crashing systems for a few years at least. It will sure be great if some other workaround appears. I'm still going to see if some other install method (e.g. apt-get) will work without crashing...but geez - this is exactly the kind of reason Linux is becoming every bit as crash-prone as Windows, maybe more so. That old line about the stability of Linux is slowly becoming a heaping steamy pile of nonsense.