Comment 80 for bug 431812

Yes - various symptoms.

I found a entry in the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file which may be the cause for the problems
Seems that a call for "splash" halts the system

"linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=44118bfa-d582-45e2-964f-66886a1d4d03 ro quiet splash"

where the "splash" word needs to be edited away (for some creepy reason)

HOWTO

Go into recovery mode
Drop to root

>nano /etc/default/grub

Edit the line
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"
and save

>update-grub
(which will update the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file)

>shutdown -r now

and now go into the normal boot and the splash screen and GUI should be there.

Good luck
Morten