Linux Woes, Undone
I have found out what the problem was. My video card does not output video to both the VGA and DVI connectors for each resolution. I don’t know why. So what had happened was I unplugged the normal DVI connector to force my computer into using the VGA (which is the only one that shows the low resolutions I need for installing in text mode). The graphical installers for the Fedora Cores (and later openSUSE) used the VGA, but when the computer switched to the higher resolutions, the VGA signal was canned.Thus the blank screen.
To make a long story slightly less long, I finally remembered that I had unplugged the DVI. After plugging it back in, everything fell into place, and I felt incredibly foolish.
One more thing: after downloading about 85-90% of the openSUSE DVD, I remembered I have it on a disc that came in a magazine I bought a couple months ago. Yeah, I’m that smart.