I'm trying to move back to Linux, so I'm trying Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) for the first time. After I accidentally wiped out my Windows XP install (I had intended to dual boot until I graduated all the way), I got the following and then the system locked up with a blinking cursor in the top left.

Kernel AliveKernel direct mapping tables up to 100000000 @ 8000-d000

I bypassed it by hitting F6 for the advanced options line at the installer boot screen, removing the splash option and adding noapic.

Months after I wrote this, I found my motherboard had a BIOS update which cited "Improve compatibility with 2 VGA cards installed". After flashing, I no longer needed the splash to noapic hack.