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Starting LXDE on latest Debian Build with BB-View

Former Member

I've just downloaded the latest Debian build and added the patches to use BB-View but can't seem to get the desktop from the windows manager to appear on the LCD display. During the boot process the tux logo appears together with other startup messages and finally a welcome message but after that the screen is blank.

 

The touchscreen is working because the calibration screen appears on the first boot and displays the cursor and waits for a touch at each coordinate.

 

I've been starting LXDE which is the window manager used in the distribution by starting tightvncserver which appears to call a script in /root/.vnc/xstartup. I can see the desktop from my vnc client but nothing appears on the lcd display.

 

I guess I'm starting LXDE incorrectly so would welcome any suggestions on how to start LXDE correctly and fix this problem.

 

The debian distribution loaded was this BBB-eMMC-flasher-debian-7.5-2014-05-14-2gb.img

 

Before adding the BB-View patches uname returned this

uname –a

Linux beaglebone 3.8.13-bone50 #1 SMP Tue May 13 13:24:52 UTC 2014 armv7l GNU/Linux


After adding the patches uname returned this

Linux beaglebone 3.8.13 #1 SMP Mon Apr 21 11:45:02 CST 2014 armv7l GNU/Linux

  • 0

    Can you try by logging into the console (on the LCD with locally attached keyboard/mouse) and typing startx ?

     

    I've not used vnc in a long time, but there used to be options in some variants to keep the local screen blanked while connected remotely. If that's the case then there may be a setting you can change to prevent this.  Other similar remote desktop software, like freeNX, never start a desktop on the local screen, they just use a 'virtual' xserver.

  • 0 in reply to Former Member

    Sorry for not replying earlier but I'm coming to the conclusion that the installation of system did not go smoothly when flashing the mmc. It seems there are files missing to start LXDE like startx and .xinitrc files so I'm looking to start the installation all over again. I'll also see whether the installation works properly before I patch it for BB-VIEW.

     

    Thanks for you help

     

    Tony

  • 0

    Hi Tony, I'm sat here with a fully functional BB Black & BB-View which we can use to diagnose your problem image

     

    The display manager used is lightdm which should be set to autostart LXDE with the "Debian" user account. You can check this on your image by opening: /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

     

    It seems rather strange that you are able to view the startup and calibration on the LCD but can only see the desktop via VNC. Have you tried disabling VNC in case it is interfereing with the process as Selsinork suggested?

     

    Also, can you describe this welcome message as I don't get anything that I would describe as a welcome message.

  • 0 in reply to Former Member

    Hi Matt

    Thanks for your feedback.

     

    I will look at lightdm.conf and get back to you

     

    VNC doesn't start automatically I am manually starting VNC by running the command tightvncserver. I don't see any "desktop" on the LCD at all.

     

    The "welcome" message I do see is text which appears on boot. So after the normal dmesg text there is a message that shows the last login the ethernet address. I'm sorry I don't have the exact details until I re-flash again.