I guess I have the same bug. This is a squeeze install that was upgraded from a minimal lenny, running directly on hardware, and I'm still chainloading to grub2.
I put "set gfxpayload=1024x768x16" (or 800x600x16) in /etc/grub.d/40_custom, and the console font comes up green. If I use 1024x768x8, the console font is a dull gray. If I boot with grub legacy, it works normally. Downgrading to grub-pc and grub-common 1.98~20100115-1 eliminates the problem.
