Comment 15 for bug 544139

Damien, Sepero, and all ...

If you look at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/upstart/+bug/543506/comments/83 you will see
that I also recommend
    Add "init='/sbin/init --verbose'" to the linux boot line in grub.

I believe this helps by forcing "/sbin/init" to serialize starting up /etc/init/*.conf scripts ever-so-slightly and I found
that it helped avoid runlevel "unknown" boots.

Damien, please give --verbose a try and report on how you do. The fact that your are keeping a successful boot count should be very useful in verifying if this helps.

Please note that these are "fixes" are all get-arounds. What we desperately need is for someone to figure out why the writes to the console are occasionally failing!