I have a Raspberry Pi 2 B+ that has been driving a "photo frame" that I built for probably about 5 years. The OS is currently Bullseye, from the official Raspbian OS image. This is without a desktop GUI, just a "server"/cli install.
The main script started with omxplayer running an intro video and then a script that was using "fbi" (framebuffer imageviewer) to cycle through all of the photos loaded onto the device. This worked for years with no issues at all.
Over the years omxplayer became unsupported, so I changed that out for cvlc about a year ago. However, in the last couple of months, "fbi" had started randomly exiting without logging any reason. Basically I would just see a white screen (I set the console background to white before the script starts). I would notice after fbi exited that /dev/fb0 was missing. It started happening maybe once a week, but now happens within minutes.
So, I tried changing fbi over to cvlc as well, since it can run a slideshow. What I notice is when I first start cvlc it works perfect. Then, after a few minutes, between some transitions between photos the screen would blank and then come back (and the monitor would show HDMI signal regained). Then eventually it gets to a point where the blanking happens between every photo.
I assumed maybe there was something odd happening with the display, so I swapped out both the HDMI cable and monitor - but the issue did not change at all.
I then started assuming something was happening with cvlc and/or fbi, so I started playing with writing my own code to write to /dev/fb0. However, I have noticed that the fb0 device just disappears after some time (probably why fbi was exiting). Interestingly, when fb0 is gone, cvlc can still display the images, but it's with the terrible screen blanking between every photo.
I should also note that when the screen goes black, I hear a small click - almost like a relay or static shock. I do not have issues with static in the room and everything is properly grounded.
I'm getting to the point where I'm wondering if the Raspberry Pi itself is starting to fail. But, I don't want to just assume that and replace it preemptively if there's further troubleshooting that I can do. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
My config.txt has the following uncommented lines:And my cmdline.txt:
Edit:
After further experimentation, I may have fixed it. I commented out the "dtoverlay" option (previously I had tried fkms, but just learned that commenting that line completely goes back to the legacy framebuffer driver). I think this should be okay, since I'm on a Pi 2 anyway. So far it's been about 10 minutes and I haven't had any screen issues.
Odd that suddenly in the last week or so the KMS driver got SO bad in my implementation - but fine with me if the legacy driver continues to work. I'll post an update tomorrow if everything is still looking good.
The main script started with omxplayer running an intro video and then a script that was using "fbi" (framebuffer imageviewer) to cycle through all of the photos loaded onto the device. This worked for years with no issues at all.
Over the years omxplayer became unsupported, so I changed that out for cvlc about a year ago. However, in the last couple of months, "fbi" had started randomly exiting without logging any reason. Basically I would just see a white screen (I set the console background to white before the script starts). I would notice after fbi exited that /dev/fb0 was missing. It started happening maybe once a week, but now happens within minutes.
So, I tried changing fbi over to cvlc as well, since it can run a slideshow. What I notice is when I first start cvlc it works perfect. Then, after a few minutes, between some transitions between photos the screen would blank and then come back (and the monitor would show HDMI signal regained). Then eventually it gets to a point where the blanking happens between every photo.
I assumed maybe there was something odd happening with the display, so I swapped out both the HDMI cable and monitor - but the issue did not change at all.
I then started assuming something was happening with cvlc and/or fbi, so I started playing with writing my own code to write to /dev/fb0. However, I have noticed that the fb0 device just disappears after some time (probably why fbi was exiting). Interestingly, when fb0 is gone, cvlc can still display the images, but it's with the terrible screen blanking between every photo.
I should also note that when the screen goes black, I hear a small click - almost like a relay or static shock. I do not have issues with static in the room and everything is properly grounded.
I'm getting to the point where I'm wondering if the Raspberry Pi itself is starting to fail. But, I don't want to just assume that and replace it preemptively if there's further troubleshooting that I can do. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.
My config.txt has the following uncommented lines:
Code:
framebuffer_width=1920framebuffer_height=1080hdmi_force_hotplug=1hdmi_drive=2config_hdmi_boost=5dtparam=audio=oncamera_auto_detect=1dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3dmax_framebuffers=2disable_overscan=1disable_splash=1[cm4]otg_mode=1[all][pi4]arm_boost=1[all]Code:
console=serial0,115200 console=tty1 root=PARTUUID=314ffd1f-02 rootfstype=ext4 fsck.repair=yes rootwait cfg80211.ieee80211_regdom=US fbcon=map:2 logo.nologo consoleblank=0 quiet splash quietEdit:
After further experimentation, I may have fixed it. I commented out the "dtoverlay" option (previously I had tried fkms, but just learned that commenting that line completely goes back to the legacy framebuffer driver). I think this should be okay, since I'm on a Pi 2 anyway. So far it's been about 10 minutes and I haven't had any screen issues.
Odd that suddenly in the last week or so the KMS driver got SO bad in my implementation - but fine with me if the legacy driver continues to work. I'll post an update tomorrow if everything is still looking good.
Statistics: Posted by rkubes — Tue Mar 18, 2025 2:23 am