Media Center Hat not working on RPi 3B+ and Raspberry Pi OS (Buster installed 2020-11-10)

[Danish-Food-Informatics]

Hi,

After going through the installation process on a fresh copy of Raspberry Pi OS, using the instructions and installation script (https://learn.pi-supply.com/make/getting-started-with-the-media-center-hat/) and reboot, the display is black (showing nothing).
It shows a white screen for a short while (a second or so) during boot, then black screen.

If I move the mouse, the cursor becomes visible for a second, then black again. It seems like a small square of the desktop turns up at the same time, then turns of again.
There is a small dot of a few bright pixels showing in the upper left hand corner – otherwise black, if the mouse is not moved.
There is seems to be a static sound from the display during boot.

I am using a Raspberry Pi 3B+, latest version of Raspberry Pi OS (installed 2020-11-10). The same RPi works well with other TFT displays.
The power supply is 5V@3A, which also works well with other RPi 3B+ with displays. No low power/voltage indication.
I have tried a genuine RPi PSU – same problem. So I ruled out the PSU to be the reason.

Help?

[ryanteck]

Hi @Danish-Food-Informatics , we're working on resolving this issue and hope to have it fixed soon. I believe we're in the final stages of resolving it.

Related to #10 and #11

[shawaj]

@Danish-Food-Informatics have a look here for the fix #11 (comment)

[Danish-Food-Informatics]

Hi, the fix #11 does not help at all, the problem is still the same:
Black display, if mouse or keyboard id not touched - blinking cursor when mouse is moved, (very) small parts of the screen get visible under the cursor for a second or so, then black screen.

[ryanteck]

Ho @Danish-Food-Informatics could you take a couple of pictures of the screen to try and show us the issue?

I'll set-up my one tomorrow and see if I can replicate it.

[Danish-Food-Informatics]

Hi Ryan,
Picture won't do, you will only see a "black" screen :-)
I have made a video of the start-up sequence with no movement of the mouse, then I move the mouse around (at 00:30), then I stop moving the mouse (at about 01:00).
As it cannot be attached here, I have uploaded it to http://www.danfood.info/Download/20201113_092536.mp4
Hope it helps.
Anders

[ryanteck]

Hi Anders,

for some reason that video isn't playing for me. Could you possibly upload it to youtube as an unlisted video and share the link in a new comment?

Thanks

[Danish-Food-Informatics]

Try again – it should work now, it does here. From: Ryan Walmsley [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, November 13, 2020 11:16 To: PiSupply/Media-Center-HAT Cc: Danish-Food-Informatics; Mention Subject: Re: [PiSupply/Media-Center-HAT] Media Center Hat not working on RPi 3B+ and Raspberry Pi OS (Buster installed 2020-11-10) (#12) Hi Anders, for some reason that video isn't playing for me. Could you possibly upload it to youtube as an unlisted video and share the link in a new comment? Thanks — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#12 (comment)> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AKNMIMXG43SC3WNMZDMNEYLSPUBNVANCNFSM4TR5R5EQ> . <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AKNMIMQMQJT3PG6P7AJYPMDSPUBNVA5CNFSM4TR5R5E2YY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOFNIDRYY.gif>

[tvoverbeek]

@Danish-Food-Informatics Looks like you have 2 competing apps wanting to use the display.
Do you by chance have fbcp running?. Try to run without it.
Smells like fbcp is copying a black screen to the SPI display and your app is trying to display its own.

[Danish-Food-Informatics]

Hi tvoverbeek,
It is a fresh installation of Raspberry Pi OS created with Raspberry Pi Imager (2020-11-10), and the display is installed using the PiSupply instructions and installation script (https://learn.pi-supply.com/make/getting-started-with-the-media-center-hat/) with subsequent reboot.
I have made no other changes or changed any settings or installations - I have tried twice, with two different microSD card - no difference, the result is the same as shown in the movie both times.

[tvoverbeek]

If you installed with the Raspberry Pi Imager you got the 2020-08-19 version of the kernel with associated overlays.
The media-center overlay in this version does not work due to SPI changes in the 5.4 kernels.
Look at the output from apt policy raspberrypi-kernel
Mine looks as follows:

pi@rpi-pj-mch:~ $ apt policy raspberrypi-kernel
raspberrypi-kernel:
  Installed: 1.20201022-1
  Candidate: 1.20201022-1
  Version table:
 *** 1.20201022-1 500
        500 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster/main armhf Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
pi@rpi-pj-mch:~ $ 

an other check you can do is to look at the output from uname -a which shows the kernel version.
Here is mine:

pi@rpi-pj-mch:~ $ uname -a
Linux rpi-pj-mch 5.4.72-v7+ #1356 SMP Thu Oct 22 13:56:54 BST 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux
pi@rpi-pj-mch:~ $ 

You need the 2020-10-22 version. This has the corrected media-center overlay.
Run 'sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade` if needed.

[Danish-Food-Informatics]

Thank you.

Here is the info from my RPi:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ apt policy raspberrypi-kernel
raspberrypi-kernel:
Installed: 1.20201022-1
Candidate: 1.20201022-1
Version table:
*** 1.20201022-1 500
500 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster/main armhf Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 5.4.72-v7+ #1356 SMP Thu Oct 22 13:56:54 BST 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux
pi@raspberrypi:~ $

However, it is exactly the same as on your RPi as far as I can see.

[tvoverbeek]

This looks OK. What options did you specify in the media center install script?
Could you also list your /boot/config.txt?

[Danish-Food-Informatics]

@tvoverbeek, thank you for taking your time with this detective job :-)

I made a fresh installation of the Raspberry Pi OS (it automatically updates and installs the most recent files), and I used the installation script:

sudo su -c "bash <(wget -qO- https://pisupp.ly/mediacentersoftware)" root

The options used in the script are as follows:

Rotation: 270
Layout : 1. TFT output only
Activate the console on the TFT display: Y
Install fbcp (Framebuffer Copy): N
Install xinput-calibrator: N
Enable onboard Joystick/Buttons: N
Configure MCR IR Remote: N
Reboot system now: Y

The content of the /boot/config.txt is very sparse:

disable_overscan=1
dtparam=audio=off

[All]
dtoverlay=media-center,speed=32000000,rotate=270

the rest of the file is commented out, either in the original file or by me as the entries had no effect on the display, like I commented out the two lines with dtoverlay and max_framebuffers below

[pi4]

# Enable DRM VC4 V3D driver on top of the dispmanx display stack
#dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d
#max_framebuffers=2

However, the problem still exists.

Thanks again!

[Danish-Food-Informatics]

Sorry for the headline above. The text should have been

# Enable DRM VC4 V3D driver on top of the dispmanx display stack
#dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d
#max_framebuffers=2