Comment 10 for bug 537218

Looks like this issue is still being seen on natty, after just looking at bug #731810, which I've set as a dupe of this.

It sounds like the root problem here is a bug in vesafb's memory handling when using a PAT-enabled kernel. There is some topical conversation about this at http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=148417

Presumably either booting with "nopat" or "vesafb.invalid=1" kernel parameters in grub should work around the bug. Disabling vesafb will also disable the boot logo graphic, fwiw.