SLES XEN does not startup in GUI when framebuffer driver is used

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 2 (SLES 12 SP2)

Situation

SLES 12 SP2 XEN starts up in text mode (CLI) rather than graphics mode (GUI) when using the framebuffer driver, fbdev. (The framebuffer driver is the inbox hardware-independent graphics driver. It is the fall-back option that is used when a hardware-specific graphics driver is not available.)

Resolution

grub2-mkconfig needs to add "vga=gfx-1024x768x16" to the multiboot lines for the XEN hypervisor in grub.cfg. This can be done as follows:

1. Edit /etc/default/grub and add GRUB_CMDLINE_XEN="vga=gfx-1024x768x16".

2. Run grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grubs/grub.cfg.

3. Reboot to XEN.

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