I had a similar issue doing a fresh install of 8.10 on an 82845G/GL integrated intel board. I went ahead with the install since ubiquity gave me no issues, just getting to the desktop. Once installed I booted into recovery mode, dropped to a shell, then did sudo apt-get remove compiz compiz-core. Removing compiz fixed the issue for me.
I had a similar issue doing a fresh install of 8.10 on an 82845G/GL integrated intel board. I went ahead with the install since ubiquity gave me no issues, just getting to the desktop. Once installed I booted into recovery mode, dropped to a shell, then did sudo apt-get remove compiz compiz-core. Removing compiz fixed the issue for me.