On Wed, 29 May 2019 19:51:07 +0000
"Blair, Charles E III via Dng" <dng@???> wrote:

> I am sorry, I have both mis-stated the
> problem I am having and misunderstood some
> of the suggestions.
>

>    I have burnt the netinst file for "ASCII" to a CD
> and attempted to boot it on a recently purchased
> Intel NUC (I disabled "Secure Boot" to get past one
> warning).  The result is a screen that is blank
> except for a (non-blinking) cursor in the upper
> left corner.  Either the installer does not get
> started or the monitor is unable to process the
> installer output.  The CD reader, at least for
> a few minutes, makes noises suggesting it is trying
> to read the CD.

You need to rule out a bad iso file or a bad burn of that iso. I'm
pretty sure you know how to get the md5sum of the file. Please read the
following document for the cookbook formula to burn a CD or DVD
properly, and how to properly test the CD or DVDs md5sum.

http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/coasterless.htm

The referenced document is now 14 years old, but as far as I know it's
still valid. On many distros, cdrecord has been replaced by wodim, but
the two act similarly and have similar arguments. Device handling has
changed a bit, and I usually have luck with dev=/dev/sr0 , assuming I
have only one optical drive.

Once you rule out a bad burn or a bad iso file, you can go back to
troubleshooting the tough stuff.

SteveT

Steve Litt
June 2019 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
http://www.troubleshooters.com/thrive