kvm -kernel with grub multiboot kernel dumps core or exits

I attempted to use kvm -kernel with a grub multiboot image, specifically grub-maverick-20100729.img at [1]. That file was built using [2]

$ url="http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-on-ec2/vmbuilder/automated-ec2-builds/download/head:/grubmaverick20100729-20100729071944-bevge631maio9jpl-2/grub-maverick-20100729.img"
$ wget $url -O grub-maverick-20100729.img
$ qemu-img create -f qcow2 disk.img 1G
$ kvm -curses -kernel grub-maverick-20100729.img -drive file=disk.img,if=virtio

This process works fine on oneiric and you will see a curses interface, and some output of grub looking for a image to boot.

On my laptop (with kvm support), I saw:

$ kvm -curses -kernel grub-maverick-20100729.img -drive file=disk.img,if=virtio;
fread() failed
$ echo $?
1

On a kvm guest (via openstack instance), it crashed differently:
$ kvm -curses -kernel grub-maverick-20100729.img -drive file=disk.img,if=virtio
Could not access KVM kernel module: No such file or directory
failed to initialize KVM: No such file or directory
Back to tcg accelerator.

GLib-ERROR **: /build/buildd/glib2.0-2.31.20/./glib/gmem.c:165: failed to allocate 4293918720 bytes
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)

Just for a test, I tried loading kvm-amd, got nested kvm virtualization, but the instance fails the same way.

--
[1] http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-on-ec2/vmbuilder/automated-ec2-builds/files/head:/loaders/
[2] http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-on-ec2/vmbuilder/automated-ec2-builds/view/head:/mk-image-mb-loader

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: kvm (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: User Name 3.2.0-18.29-virtual 3.2.9
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-18-virtual x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.94.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDmesg:
 [27230.320857] init: qemu-kvm pre-start process (8659) terminated with status 1
 [27230.361904] init: qemu-kvm post-stop process (8664) terminated with status 1
 [27249.426836] kvm[9021] trap int3 ip:7f44c2bbc13b sp:7fff447e1120 error:0
 [27263.380598] kvm[9283] trap int3 ip:7f3fba9f713b sp:7fff8b55d1a0 error:0
Date: Sat Mar 17 01:48:13 2012
Ec2AMI: ami-00000000
Ec2AMIManifest: FIXME
Ec2AvailabilityZone: nova
Ec2InstanceType: m1.small
Ec2Kernel: unavailable
Ec2Ramdisk: unavailable
KvmCmdLine: Error: command ['ps', '-C', 'kvm', '-F'] failed with exit code 1: UID PID PPID C SZ RSS PSR STIME TTY TIME CMD
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0627:0001 Adomax Technology Co., Ltd
MachineType: Bochs Bochs
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=screen
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-18-virtual root=LABEL=cloudimg-rootfs ro console=ttyS0
ProcModules:
 acpiphp 24231 0 - Live 0x0000000000000000
 floppy 70365 0 - Live 0x0000000000000000
 psmouse 87603 0 - Live 0x0000000000000000
 serio_raw 13211 0 - Live 0x0000000000000000
 virtio_balloon 13108 0 - Live 0x0000000000000000
SourcePackage: qemu-kvm
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 01/01/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: Bochs
dmi.bios.version: Bochs
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: Bochs
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnBochs:bvrBochs:bd01/01/2007:svnBochs:pnBochs:pvr:cvnBochs:ct1:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Bochs
dmi.sys.vendor: Bochs