Why does the GUI fail to start on my VMware virtual machine?

Solution Verified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • VMware ESXi hypervisor
  • svga.vgaOnly option set to TRUE

Issue

During the startup the graphical user interface does not start and the system gets stuck at a screen like this:
screen cabture

Resolution

If a GUI is necessary in this VM, set svga.vgaOnly to FALSE.

If a GUI is not required, configure the system to boot to multiuser mode (no GUI):

  • On RHEL-5 and RHEL-6, edit /etc/inittab and set the default runlevel to 3

      id:3:initdefault:

  • On RHEL-7 and RHEL-8, set the default startup target to multi-user

      # systemctl set-default multi-user.target

Root Cause

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According to the VMware documentation, in the “Content from techdocs.broadcom.com is not included.Reduce Memory Overhead for Virtual Machines with 3D Graphics Option” section:

“This option removes all graphics and SVGA functionality from your SVGA device, but does not remove the settings that allow BIOS to enter VGA mode.”

Diagnostic Steps

  • Uselspci to check if the VM has a VGA adapter. It must show something like this:

      # lspci -vk
  00:0f.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: VMware Device [15ad:0711] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
          Subsystem: VMware Device [15ad:0711]
          Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
          Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
          Region 0: I/O ports at 1070 [size=16]
          [virtual] Expansion ROM at c0400000 [disabled] [size=32K]
          Capabilities: [40] PCI Advanced Features
                  AFCap: TP+ FLR+
                  AFCtrl: FLR-
                  AFStatus: TP-

  • Use the VMware administration tools to check the status of the vga.vgaOnly parameter.

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