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?

Deference

Answer 1

To go back to GUI try use Alt+F7

Endbrain

Answer 2

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.

Energid

This was the only change needed to get Android_x86-9.0-r2 +GRUB in VirtualBox 6.1.10 working for me. 👍 – Cognizant

In my case it was VBoxSVGA which helped. You should probably try out all the configurations. One of them should help. Sometimes also upping the Video Memory helps. – Seldom

This answer is for running Android-x86 in VirtualBox, but the question is about running Android-x86 in VMWare Player. – Tallage

@Tallage indeed, I found this question on a search engine so I thought it can be helpful to share how I fixed the issue for people using VirtualBox that found this question (the solution for VMware player may be similar also). I updated the answer to mention that. – Energid

Answer 3

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.

Abortifacient

This now always works. For example it does not work with VB 6.1.12 and Android-x86 9.0 – Outwear

Not working with android x86 64bits 9.0 r2. The VboxVGA specified by baptx fixed it. – Kimes

Answer 4

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 (reboot -f) and the VM boots like magic with GUI

Taylor

Works for android 9.0 too – Aspirator

How one can proceed one the /mnt folder is empty ? – Outwear

make sure you are mounting it correctly (look at all of the mounts of your vm using mount) – Taylor

Works with pie. Just had some trouble editing menu.lst in vi. Thanks – Frigg

Worked for me for 8.1-r6 – Frostbitten

How can I reboot Android x86 using the command line? – Silvanus

This also works for VMware Workstation. – Hellbender