I don't have time to properly test this right now (to the extent where I can determine if it merits a bug report or is a Just Me(TM) problem. Perhaps others can see if they run into it.
The machine in question is an Acer 4720z laptop, with integrated Intel graphics card. lspci shows it to be Intel Mobile GM965/GL960
I put i386 CD#1 on a USB stick. When I install, shortly after going through the usual booting up messages, after /sbin/loader and then, detecting hardware, the screen goes blank and the USB stops flashing.
This thread
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=242122
on Fedora forums, made me wonder if that was the issue. Sure enough, hitting enter a couple of times brought me the anaconda screen. (I was also able to avoid this by adding nomodeset at boot, but then Anaconda dropped into text mode, which, due to the regession in partitioning is fairly useless to me for my needs.)
I don't have the problem on an Asus 1000HE with Mobile 945GME Express. The person with a similar problem on the forums has GMA 965, so perhaps it's an issue with this series?
Anyone else have a similar integrated Intel graphics card, who might check if this is widespread or if that poster and myself were simply unlucky.?