As a refinement, since you are satisfied with vesa as a universal driver after the framebuffer phase,
I suggest making the earlier phase just a scan to select a fb appropriate to the video hardware.
I've seen this in Ubuntu 10.04. Seems like one size doesn't fit all in frame buffers in Ubuntu, anyway.
In Ubuntu, one of the options is to suffer thru the framebuffer phase which doesn't last too long;
the subsequent X-session phase proceeds ok, then a brief fb phase on shut-down. I spent a month
on this because the initial Ubuntu 10.04 opted to not include SIS video's fb, which it turns out can
be made to work just as well as what those from what they call 'the big three' video suppliers.
ORICO Multi Bay RAID Hard Drive Enclosure USB 3.0/ Type-C For 2.5/3.5'' HDD SSDs
$179.99
ACASIS 2.5/3.5 inch 2 Bay SATA USB 3.0 Hard Drive Disk HDD SSD Enclosure 4 RAID
$55.45
Dell 7H4CN PERC H730P Raid Controller Mini Mono12GBPS 2GB NV Cache
$44.99
Yottamaster 2 Bay RAID Hard Drive Enclosure USB3.1 Type B For 3.5" inch SATA HDD
$75.99
Inspur LSI 9300-8i Raid Card 12Gbps HBA HDD Controller High Profile IT MODE
$15.98
LSI MegaRAID 9361-8i 12Gbps PCIe 3 x8 SATA SAS 3 8 Port RAID + BBU & CacheVault
$39.00
DELL PERC H310 RAID Controller with Cables, OHV52W, 6Gb/s SAS SATA PCIe x8
$19.95
Inspur LSI YZCA-00424-101 Raid Card 12Gbps HBA Controller Low Profile 9300-8i IT
$15.98
Dell NHGT2 PERC H710P 1GB NV Raid Controller Full Height
$49.05
Yottamaster 2 Bay USB 3.1 RAID Hard Drive Enclosure For 2.5" SATA HDD SSD UASP
$59.99