Comment 4 for bug 257181

Can you explain exactly what you did as far as setting the framebuffer resolution. . .
Do you mean you re-enabled vesafb and fbcon framebuffer modules, as well as set the vga=xxx line in your grub?
I know gutsy and later the vesafb is disabled by default.

Also what resolution is in your usplash.conf?

And I have to agree, I think that it has nothing to do with the theme itself. I believe it has to do with other low-level code, but now that you got me thinking, it may be expecting vesafb to be enabled...