gapan wrote:Weird, I don't think there's anything different in the live CD.
Yes, there's a small difference. The LiveCD does not use lilo but grub2 instead. And grub2 is configured to initialize the frame buffer and pass some data to the kernel during booting, which allows it to use that same framebuffer without reinitializing it. That has some advantages regarding aesthetics, flexibility and a little performance.
With lilo the kernel is setting up the framebuffer separately by itself. But actually I would have more expected occasional problems with the LiveCD than the other way round.

This seems like modesetting issue as you mention that you get some very early kernel messages until the native resolution kicks in. This change of resolution happens after the early boot stage regardless of lilo or grub2 since KMS has been integrated into the kernel and if the driver supports it of course. You could try passing 'nomodeset' to the kernel.