Comment # 1 on bug 1074433 from Josef Reidinger

Hi,
few ideas how to debug it.

if you put to kernel parameters in boot menu for installation 
startshell=1

then you are in console before yast started. And at this part you can run
command hwinfo which yast uses for hardware detection.

so if hwinfo there stuck, you can try you place its ouput to log file or run
strace on top of it, so we can see in which system call it hangs.

If you need more help do not hesitate to ask.