Quick follow-up: your best option is probably just to edit boot/grub/grub.cfg on the newly installed system after booting from a live CD. Details of what to change are on this page: http://askubuntu.com/questions/248/how-can-i-show-or-hide-boot-messages-when... That page documents changing /etc/default/grub and then running update-grub, but if you're booting from a live CD it would be easier just to edit boot/grub/grub.cfg directly. In otherw words, mount the file system, edit the file, then unmount the file system and reboot from the hard drive to see the messages. If the boot process stops with an error message, then use your favourite Web search engine to find out more about the problem. I am assuming that you know how to use a shell and a text editor. If you don't, then please acquire those basic and esential skills before trying to track down problems with a Linux installation.