(In reply to comment #51)
> (In reply to comment #49)
> > 
> > Alex, is this expected for the workaround?
> 
> No.  So it appears turning off the displays doesn't help either :/

Well, it does help: the screen switches from GRUB to kernel correctly set
(displaying the console), then the screen flashes for a moment (one white flash
instead of one blue flash when the reported bug happens), comes back to normal
in console (where there is now the AMD-Vi IO PAGE FAULT messages) and continues
to work even after Xorg is started.

A difference between Vladimir and I is we don't have the same video card (6950
over here).