SystemRescue 13.00 UEFI boot hang/freeze on VMware Workstation 26H1 (Windows 11 Host)

General discussions
1

Hi everyone,

(( VMware Workstation 26H1 ))

I am experiencing a severe boot delay/hang on the initial green screen when trying to boot systemrescue-13.00-amd64.iso in UEFI mode on VMware Workstation (Windows 11 host).

  • The Problem: The system freezes or takes an extremely long time on the initial boot/GRUB menu under UEFI.

  • What I Tried: Disabling Secure Boot, adding nomodeset cardmgr.disable flags, and reducing virtual hardware (removing sound card, network, printer, etc.) did not fix the issue.

  • Workaround: If I switch the virtual machine firmware from UEFI to BIOS mode, SystemRescue boots instantly like a rocket. Furthermore, testing other live ISOs like Linux Mint under the exact same UEFI configuration works flawlessly without any hang.

It seems there is a specific driver or timeout issue regarding how version 13.00 handles virtual VGA/graphics or UEFI hardware initialization in VMware.

Environment:

  • Host OS: Windows 11 (Hyper-V disabled)

  • Hypervisor: VMware Workstation

  • SystemRescue Version: 13.00 amd64

  • VM Firmware: UEFI (Hangs) / BIOS (Works)

Has anyone encountered this or found a permanent fix for UEFI mode? Thanks!

2

I think the best thing you can do is look at the system log files (using journalctl or by looking in /var/log or using dmesg) to see if you can see some errors or warnings. Otherwise it can be difficult to determine where the problem is coming from. After you have identified the suspicious driver, you can try to blacklist it or modify its parameters to see if it makes any difference.