Blank screen upon first boot after installation for Ubuntu 17.10 Desktop 32/64 with EFI

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Rebooting after installing Ubuntu 17.10 Desktop 32/64-bit with EFI BIOS in ESXi 6.5 or later, the user sees a blank purple screen.

Note: While it appears the boot process has halted, the system is in fact running.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Cause

This occurs because there is not enough video memory to support the graphical login screen.

Resolution

Currently, there is no resolution.

 

To workaround this issue, you can any one of the following steps.

1. Enable 3D Support (recommended).
   
   
• Choose the VM and Edit Settings.
• Choose the Video card and checked the checkbox "Enable 3D Support".
  
  
2. Increase the total video memory to 16 MB or larger.
   
   
• Choose the VM and Edit Settings.
• Choose the Video card, we can see the default memory is 4M.
• Change the default memory 4M to 16M or larger.
  
  
3. Set a lower resolution login screen.
   
   
•  
• Alt-F4 to switch to another virtual console in the guest.
• Should see a login prompt. Login with account.
• Sudo vi /etc/default/grub.
• Change #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480 to GRUB_GFXMODE=800x600.
• Sudo update-initramfs -u.
• Sudo update-grub.
• Sudo reboot.