was this a fresh install or upgrade?
When I chose the manual install option I had to run mkfs.ext3 on /dev/hda3 and /dev/hda4 for /cache and /myth to get everything running smoothly.
I also made /dev/hda2 my swap partition.
Before choosing anything in the initial config screen I pressed ALT+F2 to get to a new console, ran fdisk /dev/hda, created a 3.3GB / partition(hda1), 512MB swap(hda2), 3.8GB /cache(hda3), and 268GB /myth(hda4).
wrote the partition table, ran mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda3 && mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda4.
pressed ALT+F1 and chose manual setup, verified everything was correct from the loaded configuration, and ran install.
Here I switched back to the second console(ALT+F2) and ran mount to verify the setup mounted my newly created partitions.
everything was extracted correctly, but you might have some issues with the root password entered at setup, I had it work sometimes and not others. If when you initially first boot up after install when it boots in to X you get a terminal window opened prompting for the root password.
If you enter it in correctly but are prompted again, press CTRL+ALT+F2, this will drop you back to the console(no X windows) and login as root, if it prompts for a pass(it shouldn't) just hit enter.
Now run passwd, set your new password and press CTRL+ALT+F7 to get back to your X session.
should be straight forward from there, sorry for the ramble on trying to prematurely diagnose your problem.
