grub-installer fails to install on a new computer. ASUS Motherboard, Seagate 500GB Disk. Installer reported a crash.

[Bill Guy]

attempted to install Ubuntu 12.10 on a new ASUS Motherboard:
Grub-installer failed to install.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: ubiquity 2.12.16
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-17.28-generic 3.5.5
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-17-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.328
Date: Sat Oct 20 10:40:58 2012
InstallCmdLine: initrd=/casper/initrd.lz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash -- BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=unknown
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: grub-installer
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)