Parallella HDMI Not Working

[Kalicutt]

Hello,

I have a Parallella Embedded version and are trying to get the HDMI working. Currently the device boots up successfully using the image found on the parallella main site with display for the embedded version. Serial communication and ethernet are working, as well as no problems being detected in the boot sequence from the UART debug interface.

Despite all of this, the HDMI does not work. The monitors never see a signal coming from the Parallella. I have tried multiple different monitors and cables, as well as tried editing the device tree and xorg file to default to an appropriate resolution for the monitor in use. There is seemingly an issue detected with the HDMI when running dmesg:

Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 240x67
axi-hdmi 6c000000.axi_hdmi: fb0: frame buffer device
axi-hdmi 6c000000.axi_hdmi: registered panic notifier
[drm] Initialized axi_hdmi_drm 1.0.0 20120930 on minor 0
drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
ALSA device list:
#0: HDMI monitor
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
VFS: Mounted root (ext4 filesystem) on device 179:2.
devtmpfs: mounted

This is a snippet of the dmesg output which seems to be related to the HDMI. Other people have had a similar issue but their solutions have not worked for us.

Any suggestions? And at what point is it determined to be some sort of a hardware issue?

[peteasa]

just a quick comment on this... the hdmi connection depends on fpga and Linux drivers. Earlier versions of the "official" fpga had these, however later versions do not because the team were concentrating on improving the link speed from epiphany via the fpga to CPU memory. Half way along this track I put together a Yocto kernel and Linux distribution with all the necessary Linux drivers for the elink redesign. It works.. Now the oh fpga (Open Hardware fpga) is up and running (almost) it is likely that an hdmi version will follow. Depending on your skills and aims it is possible to get working, I would not advise a novice to try the Yocto route, but if you are interested here is a link - viewtopic.php?f=50&t=2599

[Kalicutt]

Is there a place where the official image with HDMI working for the parallella exists? It's fine if the Epiphany is not perfectly optimized, just want to get HDMI working for now.

[sebraa]

I believe that we used on our Parallellas before, with working HDMI. I can't comment on HDMI audio support, since we never connected TV screens. However, we have moved to newer, headless images since then. Remember that this image is somewhat dated and uses "linaro" username and password (newer images use "parallella" instead).

[Kalicutt]

Was this run successfully on the current hardware of the Parallella Embedded? This image did not have working HDMI for me so I need to make sure if that is the case.

[sebraa]

We ran this image on Kickstarter units, if my memory serves correctly.

[Kalicutt]

Thanks! With your guys' help I narrowed it down to a hardware problem. The HDMI chip must have gotten zapped at some point. Unfortunately the Parallella Embedded version is back ordered until the end of January, any alternatives besides replacing the chip myself?

[harper]

I got an development parallella. Out of the box my hdmi display didn't work either. I sent back the board and got another. Display still doesn't work. I have two green lights on. Pardon the newbie questions but:
1) I should see something on the display, even if without an SD card (I do have one but tied it both ways), shouldn' t I?
2) When I don't get a display, how can you tell if anything else is working, when bring up the first time?

[harper]

I can log in a headless way - almost. I am asked a username and password and linaro/linaro doesn't work. What is an alternative?

[aolofsson]

Login described in step 5 of quickstart..