Hi Sim,
I got the same prob with my banana pi R1.
As far, as I can see, it is a matter of Screen resolution. My screen says "out of range". I read from others, things work with a HDMI Screen. Well, I don't have one. And I wont buy one for ugly 25 lines with 80 char of text.
I posted this: http://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/1569-issues-with-screen-resolution/
It doesn't seem to interest anybody. So what,... I guess, I'm going to leave the "overwhelming good" Armian and switch back to the so said poor Bananian, because it works. At least at simple things, like screen, keyboard an so on.
I'm a bit disappointed.
Good luck for you, amsel