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cookieme
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On boot "error switching console mode to 1: unsupported"

When I boot my VM I'm seeing this warning in red. Any ideas if it's VMware Fusion related and if so what it means?

error.png

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Technogeezer
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I've installed a basic environment using instructions from https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_on_ARM/UEFI and I don't see this from either the installer or an on-disk installation. In fact my boot screens look totally different.

What boot loader did you select for installation. The instructions say to use GRUB.

 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides

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Technogeezer
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I looked at both the source link you posted and some systemd-boot info over at Arch Linux. Looks like the boot loader is trying to change display modes of the graphics adapter, and for some reason is choosing mode 1. That looks like something the VMware adapter doesn't understand. 

There does appear to be a loader.conf(5) setting that might get rid of the message:

console-mode
This option configures the resolution of the console. Takes a number or one of the special values listed below. The following values may be used:

0 - Standard UEFI 80x25 mode
1 - 80x50 mode, not supported by all devices
2 - the first non-standard mode provided by the device firmware, if any
auto - Pick a suitable mode automatically using heuristics
max - Pick the highest-numbered available mode
keep - Keep the mode selected by firmware (the default)

I wonder a) if this value is set, and b) if a value of '0' for this parameter in the loader.conf might fix that error message.


- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides

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Technogeezer
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I've installed a basic environment using instructions from https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_on_ARM/UEFI and I don't see this from either the installer or an on-disk installation. In fact my boot screens look totally different.

What boot loader did you select for installation. The instructions say to use GRUB.

 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
cookieme
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I'm using "boot.loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;". The VM boots and works fine except for that error message on boot. I hadn't seen the specific page you linked to and instead followed the instructions in the manual.

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cookieme
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I tested switching from systemd-boot to grub as you suggested and then that error message doesn't show, so it's not a VMware issue but one related to the guest OS.

Thanks for testing yourself!

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Technogeezer
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It might be something with the VMware graphics adapter that whatever driver they are using for the console doesn’t quite understand. Not sure if your error message is coming from the boot loader ori the kernel but I have a suspicion it’s from the boot loader. I don’t know if there’s a tweak to systemd-boot that would fix it but it does appear that GRUB 2 is a more common choice on Linux distros on ARM. 

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
cookieme
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Googling turned up this:

https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/main/src/boot/efi/boot.c#L619

So you're right it has something to do with systemd-boot but not sure what.

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Technogeezer
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I looked at both the source link you posted and some systemd-boot info over at Arch Linux. Looks like the boot loader is trying to change display modes of the graphics adapter, and for some reason is choosing mode 1. That looks like something the VMware adapter doesn't understand. 

There does appear to be a loader.conf(5) setting that might get rid of the message:

console-mode
This option configures the resolution of the console. Takes a number or one of the special values listed below. The following values may be used:

0 - Standard UEFI 80x25 mode
1 - 80x50 mode, not supported by all devices
2 - the first non-standard mode provided by the device firmware, if any
auto - Pick a suitable mode automatically using heuristics
max - Pick the highest-numbered available mode
keep - Keep the mode selected by firmware (the default)

I wonder a) if this value is set, and b) if a value of '0' for this parameter in the loader.conf might fix that error message.


- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
cookieme
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You're a star @Technogeezer! The console mode was set to "1" in /boot/loader/loader.conf.

Changing to to "0" removed the error message.

Thank you for your excellent detective work!

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