Ken,
The blanks you see result from hitting return, i.e. accepting the default values and letting Moodle enter them for me. It is no different if I actually enter the data listed as the default or just hit enter; I still hit the infinite loop no matter what.
Moodle will not run if I manually create the config.php file and enter the correct server/user/database information. Neither will it let me use the graphical set-up, which is why I am using a terminal window. But once again, we are not anywhere near setting up an Admin user for Moodle, this is simply the database user where permissions are set up to access the database. Even if I run with the default (as you have seen), the install hangs and infinitely loops when I try to enter a password (default or otherwise) for that database user.
by Buster Blocker.