Gutsy rc boot is a dark experience

[Jonathan Corbet]

I've been running the gutsy leading edge on my X31 laptop for a while now.
Recent updates, combined with some ill-advised meddling on my part, took
the system to a point where it would no longer boot.  So I grabbed the
RC release and installed from the beginning.  Most things seem to work
well, but...

Once grub passes control to the kernel, the screen goes black.  It stays
that way until the login screen shows up.  In between is a
discouragingly long time when the only sign of life is the disk activity
LED.  I've learned to be patient, knowing that the system will
eventually come back to me, but it sure would be nice to have my display
back during the boot process.

Has anybody else seen this?  Any suggestions?

Thanks,

jon