A problem with computers with Intel Sandy Bridge and Intel Celeron causes them to display only a black screen and a mouse cursor if RC6 is enabled (which it has been for all versions after 11.10). In order to get Ubuntu working on this computer (an Intel "Next Unit of Computing" or "NUC" model 847) I had to install Ubuntu 11.10, which is running fine now. After I did that, I modified Grub to change it from:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i915.i915_enable_rc6=0".
I need that i915.i915_enable_rc6=0 bit to survive the version upgrade or I can't upgrade. Will it survive?