Comment 33 for bug 420077

Same problem over here. When I start up my box it runs by default using my last kernel (31-11). No grub screen for selecting safe mode or previous kernels.
However, Ive managed to play with the settings in the grub file (/etc/defaults/grub) and got a splash screen with a time out (setted to 10secs). That gives me a screen in blue (debian logo) with a countdown 10-0 in the right top corner, no other text in that blue screen. If I hit ESC I get my grub startup with all my kernels to choose from.
After running sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc my grub file gets updated and all comes back to the default (second sentence of this post)
Here is my grub file after running sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT="10"
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="splash"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entrys
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_RECOVERY="true"

Hope Im clear