I am trying to run an Ubuntu Server as a virtual machine using Qemu-KVM with all output beeing printed to the terminal. I have done that several years ago using the -curses option, tried it again and failed because of the graphics mode:

# create guestVM
# installing OS using recommended settings, but no LVM
sudo apt-get install qemu-system-x86 qemu-utils
qemu-img create guestVM.img 35G
qemu-system-i386 -enable-kvm -hda guestVM.img \ -cdrom ubuntu-14.04.1-server-i386.iso -boot d -m 1024
# run guestVM with graphics
qemu-system-i386 -enable-kvm -hda guestVM.img -m 1024
# disable graphics module based on
# and
echo install vga16fb /bin/true >/etc/modprobe.d/graphics-disabled.conf
# change grub into text mode based on
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text" # edited
GRUB_TERMINAL=console # uncommented
sudo update-grub

If I run now my guest VM, I can access it using SSH, so it loads successfully. However the terminal gets stucked on the graphic mode after I see the grub options, therefore I think its something with Ubuntu. Any ideas?

# running the guestVM with ssh
qemu-system-i386 -enable-kvm -curses -hda guestVM.img -m 1024 \ -net user,hostfwd=tcp::10022-:22 -net nic
# check it its running with... (it is)
ssh guestuser@localhost -p10022

1 Answer

The underlying module that needs to be disabled is fbcon (99 is just some arbitrarily large number that is greater than the number of framebuffer devices on the system, usually 1-2).

# edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer.conf
+ blacklist vga16fb
# edit /etc/default/grub
- GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
+ GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="fbcon=map:99 text"
+ GRUB_TERMINAL=console
sudo update-grub

You might use -curses -k lang for better keyboard support.

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