I should preface this with saying that this is not my first rodeo. I started playing with Linux in 1999 (Red Hat) and I'm currently typing this on a ThinkPad running 12.04...

When I put in the live cd, I boots, and I can get to the option menu to decide whether to install/run etc, but at any point beyond that I get only a single caret. I can type stuff in, but it goes no where. I've tried the usual stuff like running with nomodeset (thinking it was the intel HD400 graphics, but it is integrated graphics...)

here is the setup:

• ASUS p8z77 pro (with the Atheros AR9485 wifi supposedly, but I'm not that far yet)
• i7 3370k
• 8gig X 2 G.Skill
• Crucial M4 (256 gig)
• LG Super-multi DVD re-writer
• no video card

UPDATE:

I though may be it was a bad image on the CD, so I downloaded another iso, and used a USB disk. now it boots to a blank screen. I can see the "press any key to get options" screen, but after that, it just goes to a blank screen.