How to start GUI from command line in Android-x86

Question

I managed to get Android-x86 running in VMware player, but if I need to go to the command line by pressing Alt+F1 I cannot go back to the GUI. How do I restart the GUI from the command line?

Answer 1

To start the GUI, I had to select VboxVGA instead of VMSVGA in the VirtualBox display settings of the virtual machine.

Note: This is a solution to make it work with VirtualBox in case it helps someone who finds this question. It is possible that the solution to make it work with VMware player is similar.

I also found this information here:

Mandatory: Unless guest additions are installed, change the default VMSVGA to VBoxVGA.

Answer 2

To fix this, you have to open the Virtual Machine Settings for your Android virtual machine and then go to the Display settings on the Hardware tab. Make sure that 3D acceleration is ticked! Start your Android virtual machine and wait maybe up to 10 seconds on the command line. It will then boot to Android GUI.

Answer 3

Adding another optional solution, because even though the most voted solution (written by JAGJIT DHALIWAL) helped me, it didn't do the whole job.
When trying to install android x86 8.1 (oreo) the suggested answer didn't do the trick and the my android VM was stuck on GUI initialization, after viewing this video my problem was solved.

What I had to do is:

1. to start the vm in debug mode, or open the CLI before GUI init first.
2. remount mnt: mount -o remount,rw /mnt
3. edit /mnt/grub/menu.lst (vi /mnt/grub/menu.lst)
4. appending this code to the first option (the first line starthing with kernel) nomodeset xforcevesa
5. save the file (:wq or :x)
6. reboot and the VM boots like magic with GUI

Answer 4

To go back to GUI try use Alt+F7