If HDMI cable is plugged during the reset/boot process, kernel hangs at the beginning. If kernel is loaded, and then the cable is inserted, no problem. It was reproduced with imx6dlsabresd and imx6qsabresd, kernel: 3.10.17-1.0.1_ga+gdac46c u-boot: 2014.07+fslc+ga824e89
https://lists.yoctoproject.org/pipermail/meta-freescale/2014-March/007732.html
A workaround for this would be using the following command line in u-boot => setenv panel Hannstar-XGA to avoid the splash screen to be re-directed to HDMI, forcing it to be always on LDVS However it does not fix the kernel crash, only avoid it.
As discussed on the ML, there's another possible work-around (thanks to Fabio). Here are the steps to implement it on imx6q sabresd: 1. Disable the HDMI support in u-boot-fsl, rebuild U-Boot, write the new bootloader on the sdcard. 2. Add your video bootargs to "mmcarg" U-Boot env-var via "editenv mmcarg": video=mxcfb0:dev=hdmi,1280x720M@60,if=RGB24 3. "setenv mmcdev 0" if you're booting from SD2, otherwise skip to 4. 4. "run bootcmd". 5. Observe that Xorg is now visible on the HDMI screen. HDMI cable can be either connected during power-on, or attached later. In both cases HDMI video will work properly. As already stated above, this is just a practical work-around and it doesn't solve the original issue.
> 2. Add your video bootargs to "mmcarg" U-Boot env-var via "editenv mmcarg": "mmcarg" should be actually "mmcargs".
It is working now (jethro) with u-boot 2015.10 (at least)