SOLVED:

Root-caused the issue to a corrupted package installation of plymouth.

First, need to update mountall:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:dtl131/mediahacks

sudo update

Next, remove plymouth and install it:

sudo apt-get purge plymouth

sudo apt-get install plymouth

Don't forget to remove the repository:

sudo apt-add-repository --remove ppa:dtl131/mediahacks

Next issue I ran into was I had the text-only boot splash screen instead of the lovely Ubuntu graphical logo.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall plymouth-theme-ubuntu-logo

Follow this fix and I'm booting like a champ with flawless auto-login and graphical Ubuntu splash screen:

http://jechem.blogspot.com/2011/04/fix-plymouth-splash-screen-in-ubuntu-on.html