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Odroid N2: HDMI to DVI (1680x1050) - setup ?


NOBL

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I have an Odroid N2 connected to my TV via HDMI, 1920x1080. This works with the

Ubuntu 18.04 Mate OS.

 

In order to not block my TV for hours making it useless to my family, I would like

to use my PC monitor instead (DVI/VGA, resolution 1680x1050).

 

There are two entries in the file boot.ini regarding the resolution and interface.

Currently it is set to the default (1920x1080, HDMI).

Is it required to change both values to 1680x1050 and DVI or is it just sufficient to

change the resolution ?

 

Of course, I'll loose the sound. The result, however, is a headless server running a Nextcloud instance at home, so sound doesn't matter.

 

Thanks in advance and kind regards

Norbert

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Have you tried with autodetect on? If that doesn't work disable it by changing "true" to "false". 
Then set the correct resolution :
setenv hdmimode "1680x1050"

And set dvi. 
setenv voutmode "dvi"

Should be this simple. 

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Thanks a lot.

Obviously I missed the autodetect flag :-(

I'll try it tonight.

 

The reason is that: I bought two 32 GB SD cards labeled SanDisk at MediaMarkt in Germany

for 5 EUR each. Unfortunately one was just 32 MB (!) after first use !

No wonder were the two cards damn cheap.

So my tests were not successful because of that.

I wanted to be sure that no other troubles are in the way.

 

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2 hours ago, NOBL said:

The reason is that: I bought two 32 GB SD cards labeled SanDisk at MediaMarkt in Germany

for 5 EUR each. Unfortunately one was just 32 MB (!) after first use !

No wonder were the two cards damn cheap.

If you got a Windows PC try to format the cards with the HP USB Format Tool (HPUSBFW_v2.2.3.exe) to gain again the full capacitiy.
If you did wrote a image to the cards the 32Mb could be a boot-partiton!?

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At my home there is a Microsoft and Apple and (almost) Google free zone :-)

Using Unix/Linux/FreeBSD/Solaris since more than 30 years !

 

I did use etcher to flash the SD card, the verification was fine.

Neither with "autodetect" = true nor with the DVI and 1680x1050 settings (and autodetect = false) did the system boot, at all.

I tried it with the TV HDMI (1920x1080) and autodetect on and on the DVI monitor (HDMI to DVI cable).

It seems to me that the system does not even try to boot on my Odroid N2 from SD card.

I can boot into Ubuntu 18.04 Mate but the TV indicates that the signal is not supported - perhaps

up to the time when the GUI starts.

I don't know.

 

It is very difficult to figure out what is going on when there is no display and I didn't buy an UART for this board.

 

If I boot Ubuntu Mate, there is a LED light in red and later there is a blue LED blinking (OS running). However, if I remove the eMMC

from the board and put the SD card in it there is just the red LED light and that's it.

 

So the SD card seems to be fine.

Question is: Is it the OS/SD card or the Hardware (or even my monitor) ?

 

Any help appreciated - any moderator can put this into a different froum group or tell me to start a new post or whatever.

Thanks

 

Edit: Forgot to mention the image I am using.

It is Armbian_5.95_Odroidn2_Debian_buster_default_4.9.190_minimal.7z

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2 hours ago, NOBL said:

Neither with "autodetect" = true nor with the DVI and 1680x1050 settings (and autodetect = false) did the system boot, at all.

I tried it with the TV HDMI (1920x1080) and autodetect on and on the DVI monitor (HDMI to DVI cable).

It seems to me that the system does not even try to boot on my Odroid N2 from SD card.

I can boot into Ubuntu 18.04 Mate but the TV indicates that the signal is not supported - perhaps

up to the time when the GUI starts.

I know the N2 can be picky about what hdmi cable you use. The XU4 also had that. So if you can try another cable...

You say you've removed the eMMC when booting the sd-card. That's something the N2 seems to have issues with, eMMC + sd card. So good you've noted that.
It seems to me there's something wrong with the sd-card/image. Maybe try downloading the image again and write it again. 
The blue led not flashing means nothing is loaded.

You can also boot with the spi button switched to spi. That should also give a display output even without an os installed anywhere. But that doesn't use the config file. 

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Thanks !

I'll try the SPI setting and see, whether my monitor/TV will display anything.

I have just one HDMI - HDMI and one HDMI - DVI cable to try.

The former is Version 1.4 while the latter version is unknown.

I'll try a different SD card. Writing ArchLinux image for Odroid N2 to the same

card results in the same: not booting.

 

Because I want to use it as a nextcloud server and nextcloudpi provides an install script

for Debian Buster I want to use a Debian Buster on my N2.

I had it running on my Raspberry Pi 3 but that is now used for pihole and would be to slow

for nextcloud, anyway.

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OK, I already have an USB to Serial connector but the other side, i.e. on the N2 is missing.

I'll order one in the states. It just takes two weeks .to arrive ...

 

I can see the SPI output on my monitor but can't change any settings.

It'll fallback to the default.

Is there a trick to save my changes to any non-volatile RAM ?

 

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2 hours ago, NOBL said:

I'll order one in the states. It just takes two weeks .to arrive ...

 

Be sure to check the pin-out and the voltage of it. Most sbc makers use a  different pin-out/voltage what can lead to damaged devices.  Best to use an Odroid ttl. 

It does seem to me you've got a problem with your sd-card. It boots from eMMC, but any distro you try on sd card doesn't boot? 

Hou you tried Armbian buster on the eMMC? Just to make sure you're not (still) using a faulty sd card.

 

On 10/29/2019 at 5:00 PM, NOBL said:

The reason is that: I bought two 32 GB SD cards labeled SanDisk at MediaMarkt in Germany

for 5 EUR each. Unfortunately one was just 32 MB (!) after first use !


Good chance they are fake. We've got a simular big store that also sells these cheap SandDisk(likes) But if you notice the printing on them, and also the piece of carton they are packed it. Then you've got to know they are for sure 100% fake. Even big brand stores sell fake ones...

Maybe try a know good sd card. I think this is your problem, could be wrong. But you did give a hint about it.
Greetings.

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I know that the serial output is the white one with four pins.

ameridroid did send me just enough information of the layout and where the

interfaces are.

Of course, I need a serial device on the other side of the cable, right ?

Because no current laptop has a serial interface, I need a USB to serial, too.

And I have that one.

I could, of course, write the Armbian image to the eMMC but I hate overwriting the only OS

that runs on my Odroid N2 and the hassle involved (creating a disk image from eMMC and hope to be able to restore it)

and risk to loose that one, too.

Getting an empty or preloaded eMMC chip in Switzerland is not really possible.

Who needs this, anyway ;-)

There is a club which builds a "fair laptop" (repair-frendly modules) in Switzerland and they use eMMC in that laptop.

I wrote mail to them to ask for a source of eMMC chips, but didn't get an answer, yet.

NicoD might be right about the fake SD card.

Do you think etcher is not right in stating "operation successful" at the end ?

Is it reading the data it wrote from the OS cache ?

I'll try another SD card. That's the only thing left to try at the moment waiting for new stuff to arrive.

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Solved !

 

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

Solution were "just" modifications to boot.ini for my standard TV (not for my PC monitor):

  • setenv condev "console=tty0"
  • setenv display_autodetect "false"
  • setenv hdmimode "1080p50hz"

Now the message "Signal not supported, Check your input device" from the TV is gone as well

as the boot procedure is started and the output is now on my TV.

The SD card I used for the tests (not the faked one) did work fine.

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I was happy but much too early !

 

I removed the micro SD card from the Odroid N2 to make a backup (with fsarchiver

and borg) on my PC.

After putting the micro SD card in the Odroid, again, it didn't boot.

Then I tried it several times until I moved the micro SD card in and halfway out of the

slot several times.

And, surprise, surprise, it booted without problems.

So, in addition to the setting of my TV (in Europe = 50 Hz ?) to see the output during the boot

sequence there is definitely a problem with the contacts on the board or on the SD card(s).

Both cards I tried have the same problem, though and one of those is

brand new.

Although bought at the same time in the same store as the faked one mentioned above.

 

Just another hint for people to check out, if the Odroid N2 doesn't boot from a known-good

micro SD card !

 

Hope this helps others !

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Sorry,

 

maybe I was not clear.

 

The display works; but if I wish to change the Display settings (really too small to work) the Dialog box does not allow to change resolution, if I click on Detect Terminal nothing happens, Refresh Rate fix on 0.0.

 

It seems that Armbian is not aware of my Display

 

Thank you

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1 hour ago, Via said:

It seems that Armbian is not aware of my Display


This development board is "under development" (on our private costs) which means many features are simply not there ... Especially this is the case for modern 5.4.y kernel, while on 4.9.y you should be able to manipulate video output by editing /boot/boot.ini files ... instructions are withing the file. Try. Probably this is currently - and for weeks/months to come - the only option.

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57 minutes ago, Via said:

How can I understand which  kernel do I have?

 

Without you providing logs (type this into terminal):

armbianmonitor -u

we need to use this:

 

Spoiler

1.jpg


equipment :D

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