Bender and GRUB1 "legacy"

[Valery V. Sedletski]

Installed GRUB2 on another flash stick (with FAT32) and trying to boot 
the same setup as above:

set timeout=0
set gfxpayload="0x0x32"

menuentry 'Genode on NOVA' {
  insmod multiboot2
  insmod gzio
  insmod part_msdos
  insmod fat
  multiboot2 /boot/bender
  module2 /boot/hypervisor hypervisor iommu serial novpid novga
  module2 /genode/sculpt/image.elf.gz image.elf
}

I see NOVA hanging. If I remove "novga" from NOVA command line, it 
prints info about CPU's (Core2Duo, two cores) and hangs. Trying to 
remove "serial" results in a reboot. Maybe, the problem is with serial 
port (machine is Asus laptop, and has no COM ports). Or, the problem is 
with IOMMU support? Core2Duo has no IOMMU support, AFAIK. But removing 
"iommu" does not help. Any ideas?

WBR,
valery

P.S. How do I cause GRUB2 to show loading progress and avoid clearing 
screen? GRUB1 showed progress, but version 2 has "silent" mode by 
default, it seems