Comment 15 for bug 153594

Thanks for the bootcharts, they make it pretty clear that usplash hogs the CPU.

You can copy the 0.5.5 version binaries from the running Beta CD in /sbin/usplash* and overwrite the ones in Gutsy Final. But if the 0.5.7 works fine in the Beta release, you're probably right there is something else.

For more investigation, you can also try running something like this on a virtual console:
 sudo strace -f -o /tmp/usplash.trace usplash -c & { sleep 3; sudo usplash_write "QUIT"; }
and check /tmp/usplash.trace to see what usplash was busy with.