[h3disp: change display settings on H3 devices]

16 hours ago, Igor said:

With desktop image, yes. If you start with server, you need to install some desktop.

 

h3disp has nothing to do with X or TV out - it is setting screen resolution on HDMI out.

Ah, the missing piece. I kept looking at the Zero server images, and forgot that they were not the desktop ones. The XFCE desktop pic on the Zero page is misleading.; would help to add sentence: "No desktop image available for Zero. See TVout problems [link]..."

 

So, given I spent so much time on Zero:

 

1. Can Zero use the desktop image from another model?

Is only HDMI supported on these desktops, or TVout as well?

 

2. Does text display via TVout mean that the GUI problem is not a HW problem?

[h3disp: change display settings on H3 devices]

19 hours ago, tkaiser said:

 

H3disp is for manipulating HDMI output settings and will therefore render TV out useless (which is not a display output but a bad joke given that resolution can't be changed and overscan issues happen). Since h3disp creates a backup for such cases (/boot/script.bin.bak) move this back, waste another few hours with crappy TV Out and accept finally that Orange Pi Zero is a headless device which has no display output capabilities (worth the name).

 

That's why on download page is clearly written:

 

• TV Out doesn’t work as expected (only PAL/NTSC resolution, overscanning, no h3disp support, notes for OPi Zero)

 

i actually did read above cautionary note and others before embarking my Zero GUI display effort, getting a text display straight away on TVout:

 

 

Unluckily this thread on h3disp doesn't say it is for HDMI only, nor that it can mess up TVout !

 

I tried h3disp after getting repeatedly the same " X11.... screen not found " error message, while fiddling with Xorg, lightdm/lxdm and Xfce4 (which the download pages imply is installed by default?)

 

Anyway:

 

1. So on the Zero, a text display via TVout still could mean HW issues?

Or do we have a GUI problem with TVout itself?

 

2. Will xfce4 GUI work out of box on PC Plus and Lite HDMI ports? If not, how to? 

 

 

 

[h3disp: change display settings on H3 devices]

How can we check for current display settings on a TV, before trying to change them?

 

Also, what is the current default setting(s) for Orange Pi Zero?

 

I changed via SSH the h3disp setting under Xenial 5.25 legacy and now I get "No Signal." Tried various combos -m 0,1,2,3,4,5, 31 and 32 for my 720p TV but no luck.

Reflashed SD card with Jessie 5.25 legacy and it still shows "No Signal" on TV.

[Orange Pi Zero: No GUI Xfce display on TV; only via VNC]

1 hour ago, jhpadjustable said:

A. It looks like you had it working at one point, before you uninstalled lightdm.  Reinstalling lightdm should restore the local GUI.  If not, you also should undo tightvncserver configuration.

B. There is no desktop until you login.  You would need to configure the display manager to auto-login as a user, then configure that user's desktop to auto-start sharing upon login.  People more familiar with Xfce4 and GNOME's version of desktop sharing might help me with the details...

I believe I have messed up by installs/uninstalls. 

 

I just noticed that the default legacy Xenial image comes with Xfce. So after boot/user/WiFi setup from CLI, I will just follow Igor's instructions for lxdm:

 

Will try just lxdm install first, and then proceed to instructions for manual login ...

 

At least this doesn't seem a hardware display problem.

 

Hopefully someone with Desktop GUI experience will give me auto-start instructions on both the GUI and VNC

[Orange Pi Zero: No GUI Xfce display on TV; only via VNC]

8 hours ago, martinayotte said:

BTW, if you wish to share actual/current desktop, vino-server would do the job.

 

OK, but first, how do I set up a GUI session for TV display? Will look up vino-server.

The OPi0 Xenial 5.25 image is called the desktop version, but how is this desktop configured?

[Orange Pi Zero: No GUI Xfce display on TV; only via VNC]

3 hours ago, jhpadjustable said:

If you can see console text on the monitor, 1, 2, 3 are not relevant because your video output hardware is working fine.

 

I only skimmed the video with the sound off, but I didn't see any suggestion that the author had a local monitor on the Zero simultaneously observing the same desktop.  There is no shared desktop in X as there is on Windows.  VNC desktops are separate from local desktops.  If you really need some sort of screencasting, the easiest way would be to run the local X server with auto-login and add the VNC server to auto-start from within the desktop session environment.  The VNC server will then accept connections and use its access to the local desktop to share it with network users.

Appreciate your answer; thought the TVout signal wasn't the issue which saves a lot of effort !

 

A. Now can you kindly tell me how to set up a GUI session on my TV? 

 

You are right about the YouTube just showing VNC session and not the actual GUI display on a TV.

 

B. Screen casting is not what I really want, but it would be nice to know how to set up the tightvncserver to auto-start at boot.

[Orange Pi Zero: No GUI Xfce display on TV; only via VNC]

13 hours ago, manuti said:

 

Thanks, I did read it as mentioned.

 

1. I just want to "confirm" (get opinions) re: software problems before I jump to @davedsbca recos.

 

2. What does it mean to directly connect the 13 pin connector on OPi0 to GND and TVout (= Video?) ? What cable/leads?

 

Is there a link for the 13 pin connector pinout description for GND and one/several TVout (s)?

 

The RCA cable is between the TRRS port on the expansion board and the Yellow/Red/White composite ports on the TV.

 

3. Has anyone tried the R359 resistor removal hack? My plan is to nip it from one side. Attempting complete removal might damage the expansion board !

 

BTW, I agree with @zador.blood-stained that the impedance match here should be 75 ohms as for cable TV, as opposed to 50 ohms which is standard for coax antennas. So maybe disabling R359 is the right thing to do. 

 

4. Also, any latest fix for the known WiFi Internet speed issue? My $speedtest-cli shows 3.6 / 4.65 Mbps up/down.

 

Our Xunlong friends here have created a mess here...  how come they haven't swapped the XR819 for an already used  Realtek WiFi chip and fixed the expansion board issue in a new Orange Pi Zero edition? Xunlong has been churning a lot of models anyway. These issues render the OPi0 price/performance potential to humdrum. 

[Orange Pi Zero: No GUI Xfce display on TV; only via VNC]

I booted up my OPi0 + $2 expansion board this weekend after reading through the doc on it warning about TVout problems. Used the legacy Xenial 5.25 build available.

 

I used the USB-serial method and logged in from my PC via SSH later over WiFi. On the TV there was no desktop GUI display, just the regular login prompts CLI.

 

So this is not a RCA composite cable issue, but likely a display one...my TV is 720p.

 

1. On the TV I just got the login prompt after the text based Orange Pi Welcome screen. After logging in it stays text, as if I were in Terminal.

 

I tried to install: 

 

$sudo apt-get xorg lightdm xfce4 tango-icon-theme gnome-icon-theme, from a YouTube video to attempt the GUI display on TV:

 

 

 

After this video follow, via VNC client on Win7 PC I could see the Xfce screen, but only the same login prompt on TV display.

 

So I removed lighdm ...

 

Then I used Igor's lxdm setup with auto log off (under the title for lxdm and other Desktops.)

This resulted in a repeated display on TV like " [097.577174] [AP_WRN} {STA} ASSOC  HTCAP 11N58" with only the first entry changing, without any login prompts or Welcome text screen.

(BTW, these repetitive text lines also appeared with the login screen in between command typing after I did above install before Igor's.)

 

2. While we are at it, how can I automate tightvncserver login at boot?