I waited for 10 - 20 seconds on that "cannot display this video mode" screen and then Ubuntu 12.04 desktop came up. this is because the default OS will be selected for booting after timeout if we do not disturb anything. (hands away from keyboard)
After logging in, I edited /etc/default/grub
In terminal:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
Uncomment the line (removed the #
) for GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
and save the file.
Again in terminal, I ran update-grub
:
sudo update-grub
rebooted then and I could see grub!