console uses graphics mode

[Scott Moser]

I'm downloading an image, and booting it in kvm via lp:~ubuntu-foundations-team/create-ubuntu-core-image .
The result is a image that requires graphics to log into. Ie, I'd much rather use either '-nographic' or '-curses' flags to kvm.
This is much easier to work with remotely than having to run remote X or a vnc server.

If you try to boot the resultant image in kvm with curses ui, you'll see:
  800 x 599 Graphic mode
and then
  1024 x 768 Graphic mode
There is also nothing printed on the serial console.

For reference, the command I'm hoping to run is:
  qemu-system-x86_64 --enable-kvm -m 2048 -drive if=virtio,file=core-work.qcow2 \
      -net nic -net user,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 -curses

The cloud-images have done some changes that make the images useful without graphics. They are at least:
  - set /etc/default/grub.d/50-cloudimg-settings.cfg to contain:
    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="console=tty1 console=ttyS0"
   GRUB_TERMINAL=console

My attempt to boot with -curses like above got further with that change, but still ended up going into 1024x768 mode.

I did avoid graphics all together in boot by additionally writing:
 'blacklist cirrus'
to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-smoser.conf

and 'update-initramfs -u -k all'

  Perhaps this is just part of the cloud images having a '-virtual' kernel that doesn't have some modules that would get loaded and kick the display into framebuffer.