Hello Drew!
I recently tried to install FC2 on my dual-boot XP laptop, an Emachines M5309. Everything worked fine until the first boot, when it would completely lock up when "setting up the hostname."
I had a similar problem with FC2 on a MSI motherboard - dont remember now which one because I not longer own it. Anyway booting with kernel option nousb usually helped. The problem isnt neccessarily setting the hostname but either shortly before or afterwards loading and starting of usb and ohci and apm modules. Recently I upgraded to an Asus P4S800D motherboard with Nvidia FX5900 graphics adapter and couldnt boot FC2 until I turned off the "EHCI emulation on USB devices" (i can look it up in the evening which options this was exactly) in the BIOS - voila now FC2 boots just fine without any modification.
When in grub select the kernel and hit the A key - this will allow you to edit the line passed to the kernel. Add nousb at the end and hit enter to continue booting.
Googling around I found the following link: http://www.ckloiber.com/ The owner had severe problems with an Emachine and maybe this also relates to your problems. He used noapic for the kernel boot parameters, although on a different machine.
Regards, Philipp Ott
