I actually think the issue is due to your video card. The radeon free
software drivers are the least supported out of the three major video
manufactures (intel/nvidia/ATI(AMD)). That GRUB flag I mentioned basically
instructs the kernel to not load video drivers and use BIOS modes instead
until X is loaded.
I got my info from this Ubuntu forum post
([http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132 here] which describes
exactly what you mention
"The newest kernels have moved the video mode setting into the kernel. So all
the programming of the hardware specific clock rates and registers on the
video card happen in the kernel rather than in the X driver when the X server
starts.. This makes it possible to have high resolution nice looking splash
(boot) screens and flicker free transitions from boot splash to login screen.
Unfortunately, on some cards this doesnt work properly and you end up with a
black screen."
