This was observed in fedora core ia64 development. I could try to dig in further if that is desired... and let me know if further tests are needed. The development mirror we have here has a 2.6.12-1.1485_FC5 kernel and anaconda is at anaconda-10.3.0.7-1.ia64.rpm I booted an Altix (ia64) system in to the installer over the serial console (ttySG0 on this machine). I did an nfs install pointed at the exploded development mirror on a server. I was asked what type of system I wanted to install (server, workstation, custom, etc). I selected 'custom'. I was never given the choice to pick package groups - it just installed a minimal system. I believe it is normally supposed to give you package grouping choices if you choose 'custom'. Otherwise, 'custom' should be removed in favor of 'minimal' because that's what you end up with.
Yeah, this is a side effect of "we're reworking the way all package installation is done" ;-) We'll get there...
We have a better package selection screen in test 2 now because of the new pirut project. It's still under development so there are still bound to be some bugs to work out.