Re: [Qemu-discuss] VGA choices

[Alberto Garcia]

On Wed, Feb 01, 2017 at 01:25:17PM +0100, Vincenzo Romano wrote:

> I've tried to start a previously created VM (running Ubuntu Server
> 16.04) with just " -nographic -curses" as far as the console is
> concerned.
> So, no "-vga" and no "-vnc" option. And no -daemonize of course.
> The PTY shows immediately a black screen with a blue "800 x 600
> Graphic mode" in the center... and then nothing else, despite I have
> asked for a "splash-time=5".

Let's see:

   -display XXX
      QEMU displays the video output of the VM using the method
      that you choose here. By default it's usually 'gtk' or 'sdl'
      (depending on how QEMU was compiled), meaning that the video
      output of the VM will appear inside a GTK or SDL window.
      That's how you normally run QEMU as a desktop user.

   -curses, or -display curses
      QEMU displays the graphical output of the VM, but only when the
      VM is running in text mode.
      Otherwise it displays the "800 x 600 Graphic Mode" message.

   -vnc, or -display vnc
      QEMU works as a VNC server, so you can see the video output of
      the VM using a VNC client.

   -nographic, or -display none
      QEMU doesn't display the video output of the VM at all.

   -vga XXX
      The emulated graphics card that the VM can see. 
      That's independent from what QEMU displays, and therefore from
      the previous options.
      If you don't use -vga then QEMU will select the default one
      (-vga std).

> I think the BIOS itself is preventing the curses mode to work. How
> can I "fix"this?

What's happening is that your Ubuntu VM is not using text mode.

Berto