Starting LXDE on latest Debian Build with BB-View

Question

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

Former Member · Answer

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.

Former Member · Answer

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

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.