Error no suitable video mode found booting in blind mode

hi,
after years of using g4l on my old pc via a grub2 selecion option I finally upgrade my pc and placed the same option in the grub menu.
linux /boot/BZ4X18.13 root=/dev/ram0 telnetd=yes
initrd /boot/RAMDISK.LZMA

selecting it works as in grub2 not throwing an error but nothing happens on screen, its simply the black dos style window grub2 shows when it starts a bootup.
They keyboard initializes (lights go off and on)
if I wait long enough, press enter then wait 15sec and type in reboot the system reboots so basicly G4L is loaded.

I changed grub2 from graphics to terminal and booted the system again, if I then select G4L I get this:

error no suitable video mode found
booting in blind mode

I googled of course
added insmod all_video before the linux /boot line -> no diffrence
added nomodeset to the linux line -> no diffrence
tried with the bios in uefi mode and legacy -> no diffrence

it’s not an exotic system I think, AMD ryzen and ADM RX570 gfx card

so am a bit clueless as how to solve this.

If using grub2, I generally recommend using the 40_custom file and the grub2-mkconfig command. Putting the 40_custom in /etc/grub.d and grub2-mkconfig.

Need to put the bz4x file and the ramdisk in /boot

This is what the latest 40_custom file contains on my latest version.
note: lines with # at the beginning are showing as bold and larger??

!/bin/sh

exec tail -n +3 $0

This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the

menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change

the ‘exec tail’ line above.

menuentry G4L {
linux /bz4x20.6 root=/dev/ram0 telnetd=yes
initrd /ramdisk.lzma
}

menuentry G4L_NOSMP {
linux /bz4x20.6 root=/dev/ram0 telnetd=yes nosmp
initrd /ramdisk.lzma
}

menuentry G4L_FailSafe {
linux /bz4x20.6 root=/dev/ram0 noapic noacpi pnpbios=off acpi=off pci=noacpi nosmp
initrd /ramdisk.lzma
}

I did also notice you have things in upper case, and it is case sensitive, so sould be lower case?

The kernels generally use the standard vga modes rather than any fancy graphics mode. Might want to try adding vga=ask, but if you get a message at it isn’t supported, try vga=1 (I think that is the default 25×80).

Have heard some systems have now dropped vga support, and that would be an issue. If it doesn’t have the basic vga modes, it might have vesa video modes, but not sure what options numbers they would be..

What version of linux are you using? I build using source code from kernel.org, but the support system is currently fedora 28.

Just did a test. With vga=ask it gives a message that ask is no longer supported.
Tried vga=1 and it seems to work, but reports that is also been replaced with a new option

gfxpayload=vga=1

did just try gfxpayload=text and that seemed to work.
also gfxpayload=640×480
also gfxpayload=vesa

there is also talk about using nomodeset option.

Liked the old vga=ask, since it would give a list of all the modes you could select.
Hopefully, one of those would work. Let me know.

hi

yes the caps is just me being lazy as that is how I get the 2 files from the iso.
I tried all your option (vga=ask, vga=1, failsafe) no diffrence, it boots but it’s not showing on screen. As I said if I wait a bit, press enter, it will then do the dhcp scan, wait a bit, press enter and I am at the prompt, type reboot, system reboots.

you might be right about no vga or vesa anymore, in grub command prompt you can enter videoinfo and you get (typing over from picture):

grub> videoinfo
List of supported video modes:
Legend: mask/postion=red/green/blue/reserved
Adapter EFI GOP driver:
0x000 1920 x 1080 x 32 (7680) Direct color, mask: 8/8/8/8 pos: 16/8/0/24
0x001 640 x 480 x 32 …etc. etc
0x002 800 x 600 x 32 …etc. etc
few more standard resolutions
EDID version 1.3

the old PC (9 years) old show
Adapter VESA BIOS Extension Video Driver
and also a list of resolution
Adapter VGA Video Driver
No info available

so old system was already running on VESA, new one has GOP

running Tumbeweed myself on daily basis, your idea is to build using my current system ? if so need to see what is needed.

on your 2ns post: tried nomodeset already, wont work
gfxpayload=vesa -> no diffrence
gfxpayload=640×480 -> monitor switches to 640×480 but g4l still not vissible.

Going to the grub command prompt, what does vbeinfo show?
What does vbetest show

Have you tired making a bootable cd using the syslinux. That will determine if it is a grub2 issue or if it works with the syslinux boot.
I’ve also used grub4dos to boot.
Looking at /etc/default/grub
there is a line that is commented out that shows.

GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=»console»

Don’t know if uncommenting that would make a difference??

Another thing. In my /etc/grub.d/00_header file
I commanted out the following lines.

insmod efi_gop

insmod efi_uga

insmod ieee1275_fb

Leaving the other lines ok
insmod vbe
insmod vga
insmod video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus

Well, it is 1:37am here in Guam, so I’m going to bed…

Last edit: AVKM 2019-02-06

From https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFIBooting
Not sure if this insmod gfxterm and terminal_output gfxterm might fix the issue, and the loading of the font??

Selecting the (U)EFI Graphic Protocol

If you are getting this error on the screen upon booting a menu entry

error: no suitable mode found.
Booting however

and if no kernel boot messages are shown, then insert this to your grub.cfg file

insmod efi_gop
insmod efi_uga
insmod font

if loadfont ${prefix}/unicode.pf2
then
insmod gfxterm
set gfxmode=auto
set gfxpayload=keep
terminal_output gfxterm
fi

and copy /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 (or /usr/share/grub2/unicode.pf2 depending on your distro) to your grub2 efi dir (/boot/efi/efi/grub mostly).

Otherwise detect which graphics protocol is supported by the firmware to enable only that module

thank for looking that up.the ${prefix} is not needed, tested it in the command prompt of grub.

so ended up with this:

menuentry ‘G4L 55’ {
insmod efi_gop
insmod efi_uga
insmod font

    if loadfont unicode.pf2
    then
        insmod gfxterm
        set gfxmode=auto
        set gfxpayload=keep
        terminal_output gfxterm
    fi

    linux /boot/BZ4X18.13 root=/dev/ram0 telnetd=yes
    initrd /boot/RAMDISK.LZMA

}

but sadly no diffrence
so for now its the dvd

Was hoping that would work?? Does mention something about having to copy the found file to locations based on the various distros.

Don’t have any machines with efi boot. Have one notebook that has windows 7 from the original install, but it didn’t have the efi setup.

One thing I was thinking of. memtest is a similar program that can be added to the boot menu.
Wondering if you could install on system, and do the memtest-setup and see what lines it might add to the grub.cfg file or if it works. If it does work, and has some option that we haven’t seen yet?

Will have to see if I can find a grub2 page that has info. But it it works from the cd/dvd that means the hardware has the support for the video, it is something with the grub2.

The g4l iso can be copied to a flash, instead of a cd or dvd, but I’ve also used grub4dos to add it on an existing flash. Make a small dos or ntfs partition on flash about 100M, and then have the rest as a linux partition. ftp://setzco.dyndns.org/g4l-lite-fc28.zip is the last version I’ve made of the g4l 0.56 I’ve been working on. Just extract files to the small partition, and follow instructions to make istall grub4dos boot loader on flash. Never had a problem doing it from linux, but windows above 7, sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t.

Thanks for the quick response. Was thinking that maybe the video was working, but without a working font nothing was being displayed.

the font is available by default, so wat no need to copy it

installed memtest via yast and it installed /boot/memtest.bin and created a new grub.cfg, so all exited
but there was nothing in it, so checked /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ and see this:

memset86+ requires the x86 real mode

which is not available with UEFI booting.

if [ -d /sys/firmware/efi ]; then
exit 0
fi

tried a clonzilla usb wich boots with uefi just fine, so added G4L to that grub.cfg and exactly the same behavoir, it loads (keyboard initial etc. etc.) just not on screen.
added all the option: nomodeset vga=normal nosplash which the normal VGA option of clonzilla has, no diffrence.

just to be clear, if I say no screen I mean no G4lL screen.
when I use the tumbleweed grub2 option it will simply keep showing tumbleweed grub2 background
when I use the clonzilla grub2 option it will simply keep showing the clonezilla grub2 background

if I set the system to legacy then clonzilla will use the syslinux boot menu and g4l runs from that fine. (same as with the DVD, system test to legacy else it won’t boot dvd)

I am guessing the small G4L kernel missing something to initialize/use the efi_gop

ah well

Was just looking at https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/efi-stub.txt it says the kernel image needs to have the .efi extension of the EFI boot loader will refuse to load it?? Not sure if it might be as simple as that??
Looked at all the efi option in the .config file.
CONFIG_EFI=y
CONFIG_EFI_STUB=y
CONFIG_DMI_SCAN_MACHINE_NON_EFI_FALLBACK=y

EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) Support

CONFIG_EFI_VARS=y
CONFIG_EFI_ESRT=y
CONFIG_EFI_FAKE_MEMMAP=y
CONFIG_EFI_MAX_FAKE_MEM=8
CONFIG_EFI_RUNTIME_WRAPPERS=y
CONFIG_EFI_BOOTLOADER_CONTROL=y
CONFIG_EFI_CAPSULE_LOADER=y
CONFIG_EFI_CAPSULE_QUIRK_QUARK_CSH=y

CONFIG_EFI_TEST is not set

CONFIG_EFI_PARTITION=y
CONFIG_EFIVAR_FS=y
CONFIG_EARLY_PRINTK_EFI=y

CONFIG_EFI_PGT_DUMP is not set

I did just add the efi_fake_memmap , but all the others were already set?
The other is a comment, and the last two would not be used??

A friends HP laptop on which grub2 is very stricks and will give a responce that it’s not signed correctly when you add a new kernel to the cfg, that can be tuned down with mokutil —disable-validation.
On this MSI motherboard is less a lot les stricktly installed, so grub2 is not giving that message and its loading g4l

not sure about the .efi you mentioned, tumbleweed entry does not use it:

enuentry ‘openSUSE Tumbleweed’ —class opensuse —class gnu-linux —class gnu —class os $menuentry_id_option ‘gnulinux-simple-c68868d4-2e74-42bf-9b67-ab3b8767777a’ {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root=’hd0,gpt3′
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search —no-floppy —fs-uuid —set=root —hint-bios=hd0,gpt3 —hint-efi=hd0,gpt3 —hint-baremetal=ahci0,gpt3 c68868d4-2e74-42bf-9b67-ab3b8767777a
else
search —no-floppy —fs-uuid —set=root c68868d4-2e74-42bf-9b67-ab3b8767777a
fi
echo ‘Loading Linux 4.20.6-1-default …’
linuxefi /boot/vmlinuz-4.20.6-1-default root=/dev/sda3 splash=silent resume=/dev/sda2 quiet nmi_watchdog=0
echo ‘Loading initial ramdisk …’
initrdefi /boot/initrd-4.20.6-1-default
}

I did try linuxefi and initrdefi but those will not load G4L, which makes sence.

Places some echo:

echo «loading kernel»
linux /boot/BZ4X18.13 root=/dev/ram0 telnetd=yes
echo «loading ramdisk»
initrd /boot/RAMDISK.LZMA
echo «past ramdisk»

and this is what you get https://postimg.cc/c6xwdDSZ
wait about 20-30sec, pressed enter several time, waited another 20 sec (as I think G4l is at the dhcp timer then), pressend enter several times and type reboot…. and system reboot fine.
nothing on screen though except that screenshot.

if there is a way for me to build G4L files myself I will give it a try but need some hints as where to start

As I read it, it is the name of the kernel, so bz4x18.13.efi would be the change. So, rename the file, and change the cfg file.

linux /boot/BZ4X18.13.efi root=/dev/ram0 telnetd=yes -> same effect, its loaded but not visiable
linuxefi /boot/BZ4X18.13.efi root=/dev/ram0 telnetd=yes -> will give message you need to load kernel first