Yocto "Failed to run qemu: Could not initialize SDL(x11 not > available)"

Question

So I've got Yocto on a local build server, coz who wants that massive build chewing up their workspace amirite?

Host and Server are Arch Linux 4.19.44-1-lts

Anyway I am just running up the example from the quick build page found here and when I try to

 $ runqemu qemux86 

from the ssh (with X11 forwarding enabled) all I get is this lousy output:

runqemu - INFO - Running MACHINE=qemux86 bitbake -e... runqemu - INFO 
- Continuing with the following parameters: 

KERNEL: [/home/bob/poky/build/tmp/deploy/images/qemux86/bzImage--5.0.3+git0+f0b575cda6_3df4aae607-r0-qemux86-20190520164453.bin] MACHINE: [qemux86] FSTYPE: [ext4] ROOTFS: [/home/bob/poky/build/tmp/deploy/images/qemux86/core-image-sato-qemux86-20190520164453.rootfs.ext4] CONFFILE: [/home/bob/poky/build/tmp/deploy/images/qemux86/core-image-sato-qemux86-20190520164453.qemuboot.conf] 

runqemu - INFO - Setting up tap interface under sudo [sudo] password for bob: runqemu - INFO - Network configuration: 
192.168.7.2::192.168.7.1:255.255.255.0 runqemu - INFO - Running /home/bob/poky/build/tmp/work/x86_64-linux/qemu-helper-native/1.0-r1/recipe-sysroot-native/usr/bin/qemu-system-i386 
-device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net0,mac=52:54:00:12:34:02 -netdev tap,id=net0,ifname=tap0,script=no,downscript=no -drive file=/home/bob/poky/build/tmp/deploy/images/qemux86/core-image-sato-qemux86-20190520164453.rootfs.ext4,if=virtio,format=raw 
-vga vmware -show-cursor -usb -device usb-tablet -object rng-random,filename=/dev/urandom,id=rng0 -device virtio-rng-pci,rng=rng0 -cpu pentium2 -m 256 -serial mon:vc -serial null -kernel /home/bob/poky/build/tmp/deploy/images/qemux86/bzImage--5.0.3+git0+f0b575cda6_3df4aae607-r0-qemux86-20190520164453.bin 
-append 'root=/dev/vda rw highres=off mem=256M ip=192.168.7.2::192.168.7.1:255.255.255.0 vga=0 uvesafb.mode_option=640x480-32 oprofile.timer=1 uvesafb.task_timeout=-1 ' 

runqemu - ERROR - Failed to run qemu: Could not initialize SDL(x11 not available) - exiting 

runqemu - INFO - Cleaning up Set 'tap0' nonpersistent 

It's this part that is clearly a concern:

runqemu - ERROR - Failed to run qemu: Could not initialize SDL(x11 not available) - exiting

Which is weird, because X is actually running on the machine and I can run qemu just fine. Running

 $ qemu-system-x86_64 

Opens up a qemu VM on my local machine

Is there something I'm missing here? Does SDL need to be re-compiled with X support or something? What about these options: "-vga vmware", "uvesafb.mode_option=640x480-32". Maybe it's an ssh thing? Or a build config option for sdl that I haven't yet come across....

To clarify it works fine from the console of the server and from the tty using the 'nographic' option. Just not over tty with a graphical option, wondering if that's even possible.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I had the same problem with a build for a minimal image on ubuntu 18.04 server.

Try: runqemu qemux86 nographic