Screen turns black when playing video clips or trying to browse youtube.

[markov85]

Hello people,

I've been playing here with my Olinuxino A20 Lime2 4GB (Rev.B) here for some time, not exactly the most pleasant experience. But currently I have a real annying problem. I am booting from an SD card using the "A20-OLinuXino-Lime2 Debian with kernel 3.4.90+ release 2" image , HDMI -> DVI converter , and Fujitsu Siemens P24-1W monitor, and there's that problem that when I start playing a video file or browse youtube (not even starting a video clip, just opening up the initial starting page) , my monitor turns black. It does not lose signal and turn off, it just stays black, I can still fidle with the Serial Debug through the system (it is not frozen). But I can't see anything, have to reboot every time, and this problem is constantly reproducing itself.

This the stuff that gets spewed out from the moment I power on the board, to the moment before I start a the browsing or video (there's nothing spewed out when the actual blackening happens):

http://pastebin.com/Qz2EeXqv

Using 2.5A ,5V power adapter. Monitor and board use the same power source ac outlet.



I also have a cubieboard2 and with the Linux images that come with it, I don't have that problem (same setup though)

[markov85]

Also browsing dnevnik.bg gave me the same result.

[Minou666]

I had a similar issue with OLinuXino-Micro with youtube or running nothing except the gui.
I went to fix lunch and when I came back the screen was black. The only way to turn the HDMI display back on was to reboot thru ssh or serial. Only the display was turned off, I know that XWindow was still running because when I had youtube running my Cajun music was still playing.

The solution was to set lightdm to disable the dpms, you should be able to do something similar with other display manager.
#
# Seat defaults
#
xserver-command = X -s 0 dpms

It doesn't work when you put it in .xinitrc

I also installed mate-screensaver and made sure the screensaver would never be activated.

what happened was that when it thought that the system was iddle it would turn the HDMI off and it was impossible to turn it back on. There is a bug somewhere in here, I have never seen this issue on Cubietruck and Odroid. This work around works for me so I am happy for now.

My system is Arch Linux. I was turned off quickly of Debian when I realized that it cannot recognize my Logitech Keyboard. The same issue exists on Cubietruck so it is not an Olimex issue. It does work with mouse and keyboard that are not remote. It makes debian on this useless for me as I have no intention of using non remote USB keyboard and mouse. The maintainers of Debian must have issues with Logitech to make sure that their stuff don't work, sorta ridiculous considering that it is one of the most popular company for keyboards in my state.

My keyboard and mouse work fine with Arch Linux.


If anyone is interested I could publish my mali drivers on my sourceforge directory. If anyone needs an image let me know, I could create one.

Michel

[markov85]

Well, if you could do both it'd be really nice.

Actually I am looking for a way to transfer the stock SD card image for the Lime2 4GB olinuxino that olimex provides to the nand flash, So only a NAND is enough. Any ideas how to do that?


Best Regards,
Georgi

[JohnS]

Try https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php?topic=3799.0

John

[markov85]

Minou,

Could be more specific at what exactly, step by step, where exactly I must write that command that you gave. I am using the Debian image that that Olimex provided:
https://www.olimex.com/wiki/images/3/39/A20-lime2_debian_3.4.90_release_2.torrent

Not Linux guru here.

Thanx,
Georgi

[Minou666]

Debian uses a different one than on arch where I use lightdm, on lightdm it is in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
I think Debian uses slim so you would have to find out how to pass the argument. I am not sure how to do that with slim.

You could enter the commands in a file called ~/.xsession

It should work there
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/SLiM

[Minou666]

Putting arch on the nand should be fairly easy. I haven't looked at it yet. With the kernel from arch that I use I do not see the nand partitions. I think that I will have to install debian on the nand and use their kernel.
My arch linux cannot see the nand, I am not sure if the kernel or uboot is the problem. It could very well be that the support for nand is not compiled into the kernel.
Once I would have a linux on the nand I would boot back with an SD card with a system that can see the nand  and copy the arch system onto the nand, keeping the same kernel as used on that other Linux.

That may take a week or two, I have been busy creating a funtoo distribution. I use a 120GB hard disk for that, less wear on an SD card. Once I have one on the hard disk I will move it on an SD card and eventually one on the nand. My board is a Micro. It takes a while to compile, I have close to 60 files to compile before I can start using distcc to speed things up. It is a bit slow for this processor, not as fast as the odroid.

I will eventually have the opportunity to get that on a LIME2, it may take 2 or 3 weeks for that.



Michel

[markov85]

Well,

I don't know what exactly is the source for this problem, but with another cable and another monitor (HP brand) ,at my work, this event does not occur. There's no black blanking of the screen.
I simply can't understand what the heck is the problem with my own setup at home.


by the way the Debian image that is provided for the board, there are two users
olimex and root. The system auto logins to the olimex user and that is the user I open/browse the applications with. For the olimex user, in its home directory , I made as instructed a ".xsession" file (as olimex user) and filed it with the code:

Code Select Expand


#
# Seat defaults
#
xserver-command = X -s 0 dpms


Then rebooted, and after that on the screen I get a message saying "Failed to login" (something similar) and it gives me a prompt login for user and password (this is all in GUI), but whenever I type in the olimex user I get the same message again that "Failed to login" .

If you have other corrections or ideas, pls comment, I am new at linux so, more simple instructions , step by step are desired




BR,
Georgi

[terranwellcomer]

I had a similar problem. The screen suddenly became black when work with HDMI. I increased the voltage of power supply up to 5.15 Volts, put the filter with rapid capacitors, put the heatsink to power supply. Black screen no longer appears.