In my stock Ubuntu install (forgot which critter its named for, about one year old), I am able to boot up normally only if I manually select the kernel in the bootloader (Grub). If I step away and it boots from the default, the system will hang with the word "Ubuntu" on a graphics screen and a few white/red blinking dots beneath it.

umb@digdug:~$ uname -a

Linux digdug 2.6.32-42-generic #95-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jul 25 15:57:54 UTC 2012 i686 GNU/Linux

Synaptics says I have 'grub-pc' version 1.98-1ubuntu-13 installed.

My grub.cfg does have default="0" which I would expect to make the default be the first kernel shown in the selection screen.

The system is a laptop with an i7 processor, and I have had trouble with some kernels not being able to boot at all in the past, and power management is not working perfectly, but I have not had problems booting the latest kernel (2.6.32-42) if I select it manually in Grub.

Any idea what is going on here and how can I fix it so that I can re-boot unattended?