This happened with a new install. In this case from the DVD. Same result with the Gnome Live CD earlier. I suspect there's a hardware problem and will put this box aside and try another collection of used parts that I have.
I don't recall reading of this problem but since I scan the subjects and read what looks interesting it's possible I missed something.
Any suggestions appreciated. I had to type this in manually and it is obviously abbreviated. Thanks. Bob Goodwin Uncompressing Linux ................ ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 ......... a dozen lines similar to this ........... ........... then ............. Unable to load SELinux Policy. Machine is in enforcing mode. Halting now. Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!