[yocto] runqemu: Could not initialize SDL(No available video device) - exiting

[Trevor Woerner]

If I start with

    $ bitbake core-image-minimal

and then do

    $ runqemu qemux86

a new window opens and qemu runs as expected (i.e. it pops open a new
window and runs in that and not via vnc).

If I then do

    $ bitbake core-image-sato

and try

    $ runqemu qemux86

I then get

    Could not initialize SDL(No available video device) - exiting

But if I use the qemu-system-i386 built and installed natively on my
system, it works just fine (in other words, I don't think this is
caused by my host missing some key libraries).

If I then try to go back and re-run the previously-working
core-image-minimal, now it will fail and give me the same error
message

    $ runqemu qemux86 core-image-minimal
    ....
    Could not initialize SDL(No available video device) - exiting

Any ideas?

I noticed this first on dylan:20269c371eaca7e655d983b8f55e5b3cb021c071
but it appears to also be present on
master:45c8cc1a58e7868f4603be08a86fef178edfc926 too.

Is it caused, perhaps, by some old sstate? I keep my tmp and sstate
directories distinct, and haven't deleted any sstate in weeks
(months?) now.

Best regards,
    Trevor