Tweak Gutsy 1: Slow boot splash screen

If your computer system is booting slowly or your splash screen is not shown it could be that usplash has created a splash screen incorrectly. This tip will show you how to remove incorrect resolution in Grub configuration file to improve your booting performance.

• Step 1: Identify what the resolution and color on your machine in the following table

#           +--------------------------------------------+
#           | 640x480    800x600    1024x768   1280x1024
#     ------+--------------------------------------------+
#      256  |   769       771         773         775    |
#      32K  |   784       787         790         793    |
#      64K  |   785       788         791         794    |
#      16M  |   786       789         792         795    |
#     +--------------------------------------------------+

For example: if you know the color is 64K and the resolution is 1024x768, you will get a value of 791 for VGA.

• Step 2: Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst file

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

• Step 3: Search "splash" and move to that line, like this

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=bc93b5ac-7bfa-4dc6-a121-efffdae0057a ro vga=792 splash

• Step 4: Replace the wrong value (e.g. 792) with a correct one (e.g. 791) and save the file

• Step 5: Edit /etc/usplash.conf file

• Step 6: Change to your resolution and save the file. e.g. in this case

# Usplash configuration file
xres=1024
yres=768

• Step 7: Get you kernel version

uname -r

The result looks like this
2.6.22-14-generic

• Step 8: Rebuild the bootsplash screen, e.g. like this

sudo update-initramfs -u -k 2.6.22-14-generic

• Step 9: Reboot your computer

Source: UbuntuGuide