Comment 4 for bug 605614

OK, I see what part of the problem was. I had uninstalled the vesa driver. On the other distros that I use, I compile my own kernels without vesa so I thought that I didn't need it. Once I installed the vesa driver, I was able to boot into low-graphics mode. When I changed 'set gfxpayload=keep' to 'set gfxpayload=text' it booted ok. I have a radeon 3870 using the open-source drivers. I usually only get the logo for a few seconds just before gdm login. For the first 10 seconds or so, I have a blinking cursor in the upper-left corner. Then I get a message about k10temp module being unsuitable for my processor (Phenom 9500,) then I get the ubuntu logo for maybe 5-10 seconds before the gdm login screen. Without vesa, I was getting about to the point where the ubuntu logo should display and the top-half of the monitor would be pitch black and the bottom-half would be grey (back-lit, kind of like the color of the default gnome panel) and I could do nothing but ctrl-alt-delete. I am booting 2.6.35-7-generic. I got to go now, but will read more of your link tomorrow. Thanks for your quick response.