I have had the same problem with two TiVos I have just set up in the last 2 days. The installer menu seems to set the emulator port in /etc/oztivo.conf to 909000 rather than 8000 that I enter after imaging the disk (using the boot CD with the HDD in the computer).
I updated the installer menu automatically both times and I see there is a new version. I guess that is likely the problem since it was probably modified to help Australian users use the new emulator on port 9090.
The boot disk is my trusty OzTivo Sony 1.6.2 which until now has not displayed that problem

When is gets stuck in the guided setup I telnet in and use joe to edit /etc/oztivo.conf , reboot, and then GS works fine.

Cheers,
John