diff --git a/kernel/core/main.c b/kernel/core/main.c
index 70b87ba..2381433 100644
--- a/kernel/core/main.c
+++ b/kernel/core/main.c
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #include "types.h"
 #include "defs.h"
 #include "vt.h"
+#include "gfx.h"
 #include "param.h"
 #include "memlayout.h"
 #include "mmu.h"
@@ -31,6 +32,46 @@ kmain(uint32 fb_addr)
 {
   boot_verbose = *(uchar*)P2V(SCHBOOT_VERBOSE_FLAG);
 
+  // On a verbose boot, put the kernel log on the screen from the first line.
+  //
+  // Everything below talks to the serial port and nothing else until the first
+  // exec calls console_takeover(). That is fine on a machine with a UART and
+  // useless on one without -- and a laptop, a Chromebox, anything built this
+  // century has no 16550 at 0x3f8. The screen showed the loader's progress bar
+  // and then nothing at all, for the whole of boot, on exactly the machines
+  // where something was going wrong.
+  //
+  // The loader has already put a framebuffer on the screen and described it in
+  // the boot block, so there is a perfectly good console sitting there unused.
+  // Attaching it here costs one struct and makes the difference between "it
+  // froze" and knowing which line it froze after.
+  //
+  // Unconditional, not just on a verbose boot. F8 is no use to someone whose
+  // machine resets before they can read anything, and "it froze after the
+  // loading bar" is a bug report nobody can act on. This is what Linux does
+  // too: the log is the default and `quiet splash` is the thing you ask for.
+  //
+  // The splash stays on screen until the kernel's first message, and a boot
+  // that succeeds clears the whole lot when the first program starts -- so
+  // the only time anyone sees this is the only time anyone needs it.
+  {
+    struct fb_info bi;
+    bi.ptr    = (volatile uchar *)P2V((uint64)*(uint32*)P2V(SCHBOOT_VBE_LFB));
+    bi.width  = *(uint16*)P2V(SCHBOOT_VBE_WIDTH);
+    bi.height = *(uint16*)P2V(SCHBOOT_VBE_HEIGHT);
+    bi.stride = *(uint16*)P2V(SCHBOOT_VBE_STRIDE);
+    bi.bpp    = *(uchar *)P2V(SCHBOOT_VBE_BPP);
+    // Only if the loader actually described something. A zero here means the
+    // BIOS path or a firmware that gave no GOP, and drawing into address zero
+    // is a worse failure than staying quiet.
+    if (bi.ptr && bi.width && bi.height && bi.stride && bi.bpp >= 16) {
+      gfx_attach_scanout(&bi);
+      vt_init();
+      gfx_clear(0x0C0E13);          /* SCH_BG; theme.h is not included here */
+      cons_serial_only = 0;
+    }
+  }
+
   uartearlyinit();
   if (boot_verbose) cprintf("verbose boot: uartearlyinit done\n");
   // The DMA arena is carved off the top of physical memory *before* kalloc is
diff --git a/kernel/dev/vt.c b/kernel/dev/vt.c
index 87d5dca..ba30635 100644
--- a/kernel/dev/vt.c
+++ b/kernel/dev/vt.c
@@ -140,6 +140,15 @@ void
 vt_init(void)
 {
   int cols, rows;
+
+  // Idempotent. A verbose boot brings the terminals up early, before the PCI
+  // bus is walked, so that the kernel log has somewhere to go; main() then
+  // calls this again in its usual place. The second call must not wipe six
+  // screens of boot messages.
+  if (vt_ready) {
+    vt_resize();
+    return;
+  }
   measure(&cols, &rows);
 
   for (int i = 0; i < NVT; i++) {