Slackware64-current in VirtualBox: if EFI always KMS, else no KMS. Why?
Using an up to date DVD ISO image of Slackware64-current in VirtualBox, here is something I do not understand:
(1) If I activate EFI in the VM, I have always a framebuffer (cat /proc/fb prints "0 EFI VGA"), regardless of the label used at the boot prompt (huge.s or kms.s, ie with or without "nomodeset" in /proc/cmdline). (2) If I do not activate EFI in the VM, I have never a framebuffer regardless of the label (cat /proc/fb prints nothing). But both kernels (/EFI/BOOT/huge.s and /kernels/huge.s/bzImage) and initrds (/EFI/BOOT/initrd.img and /isolinux/initrd.img) are identical, as far as md5sum can tell. Certainly something obvious escapes me again, nevertheless please some kind soul shed some light in my clouded mind. |
EFI provides its own framebuffer device (only available when booting with EFI) and the kernel Pat provides has support for this device enabled. A good thing too, otherwise you would just get a black screen. ;)
Code:
$ grep CONFIG_FB_EFI /boot/config-generic-3.8.13 |
Read this earlier post I wrote from before this config option was set:
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You might also find this interesting:
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Thanks for your answers, Ruarí. Much appreciated!
Somehow this simplifies editing of elilo.conf and isolinux.cfg in the internationalized installer, as I won't need both KMS and non KMS labels in these files. Despite what wrote rwebber I can boot Slackware64-current in a VirtualBox VM with EFI activated even without the guest additions. The only issue is that loading the initrd takes ages. Nevertheless I will try with the guest additions, just to see if that changes something. |
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Problem occurs only on VirtualBox, Slackware installer is OK.
Launching Slackware-current in a non-UEFI real machine does allow to use KMS, so this is actually a limitation of my version of?) VirtualBox, not Slackware's installer.
I can't edit my initial post because it is too old, but please consider this issue as [SOLVED]. |
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