No video after login - Le Potato

Hello! I recently picked up a Le Potato to play around with and I am having a weird issue where the video signal turns off after I log in via the Graphical Login Screen. I tried giving it some time to “think things over”, but even after an hour, it still does not kick the video back on and display the desktop. I also attempted to log into the command line interface and manually start the GUI with startx and it does the same thing. This has been a problem from day one.

Virtual Terminals (alt F1 through F6) works
Graphical Login Screen Works
Red and Green LEDs are on solid.
The blue LED blinks normally with disk access.

I’ve tried CoreElec, Armbian, and Debian. I’ve tried 2 different monitors and 3 TVs and they all do the exact same thing.

Am I missing something? A configuration change someplace? Is there a firmware update I need to install? I may try Ubuntu and see if it makes any difference, but I fear it may not…

Ideas? Opinions?

Little update:
Ubuntu 22.04 works.
But, why? What’s the difference?
I’m just a weee confused…

More digging-n-poking required!

Have you tried swapping HDMI cables? All of our official images use the same Linux kernel so there is no difference in GUI.

Armbian Ubuntu/Debian and CoreELEC use a completely different kernel and you need to use their forums for support.

1 Like

I have tried a few different HDMI cables and that didn’t make any difference. I’ll go back and look at your releases of Debian and Armbian. Pretty sure I used their releases that were supposedly for the Le Potato. But, I can try the ones from you guys to help isolate the problem.

On a more positive note: I managed to get CoreElec to work using the latest alpha release. I didn’t see anything in the release notes related specifically to the Le Potato or possible quirks with logins. So… who knows! Just glad it works for tinkering with!
One thing I discovered while using it is that my USB powered DVD/BluRay player evidently pulls too much current for the Le Potato. Most likely the power supply (I’m using an Apple USB type A power adaptor for an old iPhone 6s - provides 2A of current). I’ve got a 2.5A power adaptor coming from Cana Kit. So, hopefully that will provide enough current. Otherwise… I guess I’ll have to find something different.

Off to do more tinkering! :slight_smile:

Armbian is a third party project. We do not release Armbian builds. Our official images for Raspbian, Ubuntu, and Debian stick to official software behavior. Please make sure you are identifying the image your are using.