Installing from CDROM - No Baton?

[Josh Klein]

Hello - I'm new to FreeBSD, but I'm following the installation instructions 
from The Complete FreeBSD. I checked the archives of this list, but can not 
find reference to this issue.

I'm trying to install 5.3 - but when I boot from the CD-ROM, I do not get 
the expected swirling baton. Instead, I get a collection of symbols 
(including some common letters and numbers, some not) that "rotate" much in 
the way the swirling baton would, were it there. These characters appear 4-5 
lines above the blinking _ at the bottom of the screen, and several tabs in.

This persists for 30+ minutes and does not show any signs of abating. I am 
installing it over an installation of WinXP (intending to completely wipe 
all my data).

Is this normal? Any ideas?

Thank You,
LW