Plymouth is the default bootsplash app used in Ubuntu... It displays the Ubuntu logo while booting.
For as long as I can remember, every time I install the proprietary NVidia display driver, my bootsplash gets borked. It just displays a black screen, then a few flickers of the Ubuntu logo or NVidia logo, then the desktop is presented.
It seems that simply resetting the default plymouth theme fixes this issue:
$ sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth
apply changes:
$ sudo update-initramfs -u
Here is how to switch the bootsplash to [my favorite] the solar theme:
$ sudo apt-get install plymouth-theme-solar
$ sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth
$ sudo update-initramfs -u
then reboot!
more info:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Plymouth