[coreboot] ISOLINUX gfx problems under qemu/coreboot/SeaBIOS

[Arthur Heymans]

Jonathan Neuschäfer <j.neuschaefer at gmx.net> writes:
>
> I think I was able to reproduce the problem, when Philipp described it
> on IRC:
>
> 1. checkout coreboot from git[1], or run make clean && rm .config
>
> 2. make menuconfig, select Emulation/QEMU-i440fx. SeaBIOS will
>    automatically be selected.
>
> 3. make
>
> 4. Test with QEMU. I'm using QEMU 2.6.0 from Debian testing (a.k.a.
>    stretch) on an x86_64 laptop. Both of the tested CDs use ISOLINUX.
>
> 4.1.1. get xubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso[2]
>
> 4.1.2. qemu-system-x86_64 -cdrom xubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso -m 512
>   A splash screen is shown, and then a graphical boot menu, which allows
>   to select language, different boot modes, kernel command line, etc.
>
> 4.1.3. qemu-system-x86_64 -cdrom xubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso -m 512
>                           -bios build/coreboot.rom
>   The splash screen doesn't appear; instead an error is shown:
>
>   graphics initialization failed
>   Error setting up gfxboot
>   boot:
>
> 4.2.1. get debian-live-8.2.0-amd64-lxde-desktop.iso[3]
>
> 4.2.2. qemu-system-x86_64 -cdrom debian-live-8.2.0-amd64-lxde-desktop.iso
>   A graphical boot menu is shown.
>
> 4.2.3. qemu-system-x86_64 -cdrom debian-live-8.2.0-amd64-lxde-desktop.iso
>                           -bios build/coreboot.rom
>   ISOLINUX fails to present a graphic menu and falls back to a
>   text-based menu.

A quick test shows me that selecting CONFIG_SEABIOS_VGA_COREBOOT is the
culprit. This change https://review.coreboot.org/#/c/16965/ selects this
by default when native graphic init is used but apparently needs an
exception for QEMU.

Kind regards
-- 
Arthur Heymans