To let the list know, I don't know if I follow this, but, it turns out if I build vgabios 0.6a locally I can get this to work. I have to use the "fbdev" device driver in XFree86, but it works.
Also, when I build the new vgabios.bin, it turns out I have to specify the "-L" command line option for QEMU, or else it doesn't pick up the vgabios.bin installed on the system. I noticed the cirrus driver specifies 8MB of vram, but if you run the vesa driver on top of it, you get a report of 4MB or vram. Who is in charge of the vgabios released with QEMU? I think it's time for a refresh. -Kyle