Display not detected. No hardware specifics

bwmasterson

Ok. I am at a point where I must move forward.
Can you tell me what the recommended GUI config would be for this device?
Can you tell me which graphics driver should be chosen?
If "No" to the above, can i protect my licenses if I choose to do a full distro change on the MangoES? To be clear.., Can I remove the factory install Deb distro and install a different distro without loosing use of my licensing purchased with this MangoES?
I have poured through the forums, tutorials and even requested hardware specifics. I have managed to establish terminal access via HDMI but that is the limit of it. I need a light browser capable gui on this device or I can not use it.

I would still like to know, moving forward, if you plan to release hardware specs for this device (processor manuf, graphics chipset, firmware specs?. I haven't received an answer to that question. I have had nothing but difficulty configuring this device to do 3 basic things.

phildunlap

Hi bwmasterson,

The MangoES does not come with a GUI operating system.

With regards to your license, we may make an exception for you, but MangoES licenses are generally not transferable. We prefer to conduct licensing issues through email.

Those hardward specs for a V3 MangoES would be entirely derived from the specs of the Odroid XU-4. The ES is contributing the power supply, the case, the RS-485 port, power for the system clock, etc. The HDMI port is the port on the Odroid.

We have developed a version of the ES that has what you're looking for. It boots right to a browser in a lightdm, connected to Mango at localhost in fullscreen mode. However, there were some issues with the Firefox that was available at the time, where some dropdowns in the old UI were impossible to click. This, and a couple other issues (along with limited demand), prevented it from making it all the way forward as a marketed product. It would likely be entirely sufficient and functional if one will only be loading and using a dashboard, as opposed to administrating the whole of Mango. If that's a solution you're interested in knowing more about, I'd encourage you to contact us via phone next week.

bwmasterson

Phil, apparently I have a corrupt boot,scr file? I have been thru the XU4 forums top to bottom. I attempted to use an sd to rescue boot it and then access the eMMC but no joy. Is there a "hardware key" feature built into the MangoES expansion board? I have solved the display problem but now my tinkering may have caused a new problem. Can I buy a factory eMMC 8GB and field install.

You have my apologies and I chalk this all up now to my inexperience with the XU4 hardware. I have everything else under control. Thanks for the assistance.

phildunlap

There is a switch on the XU4 to boot from SD or eMMC.

No there is not a hardware key. I think it was the U3 (MangoES v2) had an issue on some units where power would leak from the mini-HDMI port and somehow prevent it from starting again if the mini-HDMI was left connected and the other end was powered, then the power cable was removed and reinserted to the ES. The mini-HDMI port wasn't exposed so not many people ran into this, but it was strange.

Yes you can buy just an eMMC from us and swap it in the field.

bwmasterson

@phildunlap I actually solved everything. It was the helper line in the boot.scr and my lack of experience with the arm architecture. After reading the source material you provided and building a platform from the ground up on a similar device I was able to recover the eMMC in place. Thank you.

16:9 ratio screen works well now and I am exploring different browser solutions to avoid the firefox issues discussed. I feel that I created most of the problems thru inexperience and frustration but I am happy to share any details on the recovery. I am sure others will not have a similar experience.
One question, if I may? Why use the boot.scr instead of just a boot.ini? The literature I read says that the .scr isn't necessary with the XU4 as it can build/load from the .ini file when no .scr is present.
The entire boot mechanism is foreign to me and I have had no call to use the mkfile command before. My failure came from editing the .scr directly without "remaking" it. I tried after the boot.ini changes weren't propagated and I caused the boot failure which is quite a problem to overcome. Is it a legacy carryover due to the hardware update? Just curious.

netboot capability for recovery would be a great addition but I know you guys work very hard on the product to ensure quality. Just a suggestion. Maybe I will work on that at a future date and send you anything interesting.

Thank you for your expertise, supplied tech input and help!

phildunlap

Nice! Thanks for sharing you got it resolved!

The boot mechanism is mostly foreign to me as well, I haven't had cause to look deeply into it. That's probably why I omitted the apparently crucial step of remaking it :D. Sorry I wasn't able to be more insightful and save you what sounds like an involved process.

I do believe you are correct that it's a holdover from a OS update. I believe the very first set of XU4's (or maybe I'm confusing myself with the U3 in the V2 boards) only had a boot.scr and when we updated operating system components they modified some things.

I will start a quick conversation on netboot options, but definitely if you get it assembled we'd love to see what you make.

Certainly! Thanks for contributing back a willingness to help others with your new expertise!

bwmasterson

Let me know if you try booting an ES without the .scr file. I read that it works but haven't had time to try it. The benefit is that any edits (even incorrect ones) wouldn't require the mkfile prior to boot and would omit a crucial and fatal mistake by field techs.

In addition, I found two sources that might be of use.

A generic kms helper file that expands the default resolutions to virtually any display rather a defined resolution. I don't believe that there are any licensing concerns.
After trying multiple bootabe images for a recovery sd card... I found a very basic core image construct that worked perfectly. It allowed me to mount the eMMC partition and edit->make the boot.scr.

I am happy to share links if you feel its appropriate or I can email them to you for review prior to making them available. I don't want to create a possible security concern on someone else's machine and I am not a Linux expert; just a deployment/ commissioning tech.

phildunlap

Yeah I'd definitely be interested in the links. Usually I don't remove people's links unless it's obvious the person is spamming or plugging their own stuff without asking, or if the website tells me I'm a winner immediately if i open it. The more detail you provide in this thread, the more you help out the whole of posterity.

bwmasterson

Ok, Phil.
Here is a copy of my boot.ini after repair.

setenv initrd_high "0xffffffff"
setenv fdt_high "0xffffffff"
setenv macaddr "00:1e:06:61:7a:39"
setenv bootrootfs "console=tty1 console=ttySAC2,115200n8 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 ro$
setenv bootcmd "fatload mmc 0:1 0x40008000 zImage; fatload mmc 0:1 0x42000000 u$
setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/E2211_21_16-9.bin"
setenv bootargs "${bootrootfs} ${videoconfig} smsc95xx.macaddr=${macaddr}"
boot

EDID Database https://gitlab.com/corossig/edid-database

Download and install in "/usr/lib/firmware/edid/"

$ cd /usr/lib/firmware/edid/
~/usr/lib/firmware/edid/$ wget "https://gitlab.com/corossig/edid-database/blob/master/E2211_21_16-9.bin"
~/usr/lib/firmware/edid/$ cd /media/boot/
~/media/boot/$ ls 
boot.ini  boot.scrbak  exynos5422-odroidxu3.dtb   uInitrd
boot.scr  boot.txt     System Volume Information  zImage

//**backup boot.ini and boot.scr**//

~/media/boot/$ sudo cp boot.ini boot.inibak
~/media/boot/$ sudo cp boot.scr boot.scrbak


//**edit boot.ini using E2211-21_16-9.bin**//

~/media/boot/$ mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -d boot.ini boot.scr

Reboot

bwmasterson

Great reference for customizing the boot.ini to accomodate various resolutions
refresh, etc..

Monitor config parameters in the boot.ini
http://odroid.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en:xu4_hdmiphy_configuration

Very current minimal odroid img
http://odroid.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en:xu4_ubuntu_minimal
***I have only rescue booted from SD with this img... and then returned my mangoES to factory settings by restoring the eMMC.

bwmasterson

Also, I have been testing GUI performance using the Iceweasel(MozFirefox for arm7) browser... no limitations so far. I will let you know when the Dashboards are complete.

phildunlap

Nice! Thanks for going into such detail!

Iceweasel is what we were testing for the Kiosk ES, and what we found to have issues with the drop down menus in the old UI. Out of curiousity, do you experience that too or might they have updated it with a fix since I was testing?

bwmasterson

@phildunlap I haven't been far enough into it to publish a dashboard with dropdowns. I am using a simple heads up display for onsite personnel. I am starting on the facility manager's home screen now so I might have some insight later next week. Can you describe the issue?
...menu lists weren't populating? selectively populating? wouldn't populate fully?
....wouldn't trigger on hover/mouseover?mousedown?

I will watch for it if you can describe it.

phildunlap

All the old pages had the issue with every drop down. So, on /watch_list.shtm you couldn't pull down the list of watchlists. On /data_sources.shtm you couldn't pull down the list of possible data source types to add.

The element would select, so the up and down keys worked, but it wouldn't work as a select type element with the options in a visible list. It would have only affected pages that use Dojo select fields I think, but that's most of the old pages.

bwmasterson

OK. I understand now. The pages you're referring to are the legacy Mango interface... the dropdowns on those pages. If I understand correctly, these are the pages generated by .jsp and use Dojo as they are pre-AngJS..

No problems at all.. pages respond well, drop downs populate quickly, allow selection and redirect based on selection.

For historical reference, I am using:

ii  lightdm                               1.10.3-3
ii  lightdm-gtk-greeter                   1.8.5-2
ii  task-desktop                          3.31+deb8u1
ii  task-xfce-desktop                     3.31+deb8u1 
ii  tasksel                               3.31+deb8u1 
ii  tasksel-data                          3.31+deb8u1 
ii  xfce4                                 4.10.1       all
ii  iceweasel                             52.2.0esr-1~ all

I omitted a bulk of the output from

dpkg-query -l

but I am happy to send it.

phildunlap

Thanks :D

bwmasterson

I have found two issues with the dashboard designer that are pretty minor. CSS fixes are likely the solution.

When assigning the XID to a point source for any html object the dropdown list is too narrow to display usable name data. I have to cut and paste from a second screen.
while designing in dashboard the visual port for graphical design window doesn't have a horiz scroll bar.

Which css file assigns these features and I will modify them? is there an overrides folder for it?

Jared Wiltshire

@bwmasterson said in Display not detected. No hardware specifics:

I have found two issues with the dashboard designer that are pretty minor. CSS fixes are likely the solution.

When assigning the XID to a point source for any html object the dropdown list is too narrow to display usable name data. I have to cut and paste from a second screen.

while designing in dashboard the visual port for graphical design window doesn't have a horiz scroll bar.

Which css file assigns these features and I will modify them? is there an overrides folder for it?

Thanks for reporting these issues. If you post any further issues with the new UI and dashboard designer to https://forum.infiniteautomation.com/category/21/mango-api-and-dashboards I will have a greater chance of seeing them.

I will definitely make the data point XID field wider.

You should see a horizontal scrollbar, which browser are you using?

0_1499278381663_d12375fb-8459-4962-85b0-9a33a3e2b13c-image.png

edit. You can upload/create your own stylesheet on the UI Settings page which you can use to override styles on the dashboard designer.

bwmasterson

@Jared-Wiltshire My apologies. I thought I was continuing a discussion with Phil concerning the new UI. I will, of course, post in the appropriate place in the future. Thank you.

BTW, the new interface is amazing. I never thought I would be a fan of angularjs but you have sold me.

I also found the scroll bar after adjusting my resolution. My hardware and not the software.

CoraDias

Hi...i am a new user here. As per my knowledge by default the MangoES HDMI port should just display the command line.On the IP issue can you tell me how you have tried to set the IP? Did you do this via the MangoES configuration section on the system setting page?

[link to youtube video removed by Phil]