HP Elitedesk 705 G4 with AMD Radeon Vega Graphics 11 random blank screen on boot

sem

Hi. Using Batocera 33 from a new Sandisk USB flash drive. Worked flawlessly on Intel NUC i3 from 2013 but just got an Elitedesk 705 G4 with AMD APU (it’s a AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 2400G).

It has to Displayport ++ ports and using a branded Displayport to HDMI adapter into a Sony 1080p TV.

Secure boot / fast boot on windows 11 internal drive is disabled in windows and bios. Windows shutdown and not hibernating.

I get random black screen after the Batocera Splash image - Loading batocera linux appears, splash appears then randomly the display doesn’t initialise - maybe one in three it works. Not rhyme or reason - changed display port, removed external usb devices etc.

When there’s no display, I cannot get an output from xrandr - cannot open display 0:0. In the emulation station logs, when display fails, I can see the GL drivers being initialised then there’s no further output.

For info, Windows 11 (in this case) brings up the display every single time so I know it’s not the hardware.

Thanks, sem.

sem

Update:

Two black screens in a row - this if I try to start Emulationstation from working ssh:

[root@BATOCERA /userdata/system]# emulationstation restart

2022-05-06 16:43:18 ERROR Error initializing SDL!

No available video device

2022-05-06 16:43:18 ERROR Renderer failed to initialize!

2022-05-06 16:43:18 ERROR Window failed to initialize!

This from Xorg.0.log

[ 14.299] (II) AMDGPU(0): glamor X acceleration enabled on AMD Radeon™ Vega 11 Graphics (RAVEN, DRM 3.42.0, 5.15.11, LLVM 13.0.0)

[ 14.299] (II) AMDGPU(0): glamor detected, initialising EGL layer.

[ 14.299] (**) AMDGPU(0): TearFree property default: on

[ 14.299] (==) AMDGPU(0): VariableRefresh: disabled

[ 14.299] (II) AMDGPU(0): KMS Pageflipping: enabled

[ 14.299] (WW) AMDGPU(0): No outputs definitely connected, trying again…

[ 14.299] (WW) AMDGPU(0): Unable to find connected outputs - setting 1024×768 initial framebuffer

[ 14.299] (II) AMDGPU(0): mem size init: gart size :bfa97000 vram size: s:3e836000 visible:3e836000

[ 14.299] (==) AMDGPU(0): DPI set to (96, 96)

[ 14.299] (==) AMDGPU(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)

[ 14.299] (II) Loading sub module “ramdac”

[ 14.299] (II) LoadModule: “ramdac”

[ 14.299] (II) Module “ramdac” already built-in

[ 14.299] (EE) AMDGPU(0): No modes.

[ 14.299] (II) UnloadModule: “amdgpu”

[ 14.299] (II) UnloadSubModule: “glamoregl”

[ 14.299] (II) Unloading glamoregl

[ 14.299] (II) UnloadSubModule: “fb”

[ 14.299] (II) Unloading fb

[ 14.299] (EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

[ 14.299] (EE)

Fatal server error:

[ 14.299] (EE) no screens found(EE)

[ 14.299] (EE)

Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support

at http://wiki.x.org

for help.

[ 14.299] (EE) Please also check the log file at “/var/log/Xorg.0.log” for additional information.

[ 14.299] (EE)

[ 14.300] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

sem

Just a thought. The v33 stick had been working since it was released on the NUC with Intel graphics. But one thing I’ve done is disable Kodi. When I put the stick in the Elitedesk, I had to use Kodi to check the audio out through DisplayPort then disabled Kodi.

question is, with Kodi enabled, does this start up before Emulationstation? Not start at boot but just being initialised by the OS. Could it be that Kodi is more successful initialising graphic chipsets than emulationstation?

Other reports of black screen after splash seem to suggest they work first time when the flag drive is written and first booted but become problematic after. But isn’t the default Batocera config set to enable Kodi by default?

I’ll try this later and will report back if it makes any difference.

Update: no. Enabling Kodi doesn’t make a difference.

Atari

Kodi does not start at boot… unless you enabled the “start kodi at boot” option in ES.

You should probably make an official issue report about this for the devs to see, you’ve already got more than enough information to have the problem fixed: https://wiki.batocera.org/report_issue

Have you tried setting a batocera-resolution setMode after the display fails? Though I suspect that it really is the graphics driver failing to start, but this would confirm it.

sem

Atari

@ “Atari”#p38004 Hi. Thanks for reply and what I should do with the info. Glad there’s enough diagnostics stuff there. I’ll try you suggestion again to confirm but pretty sure I’d tried that to see if anything was highlighted to give some clues. I’ll raise an issue.

just to confirm, is there any difference in the builds offered for Nuc and X64 or are they the same?

joinski

sem is there any difference in the builds offered for Nuc and X64 or are they the same?

they are the same

sem

joinski Thanks for confirming. Have raised an issue on Github now.

sem

I did put an issue report with a couple of follow ups on Github and ended up being blocked as Spammy. So the issue is invisible until Github admin decide whether I am spammy or not. So…

Have tried:

straight DisplayPort to HDMI - same issue
different display (TV) - same issue
batocera 32 - same issue
batocera 34 latest Beta (as of 11/05/2022) - same issue

So it pretty much confirms the Batocera linux build doesn’t like DisplayPort to HDMI on Ryzen chipset.

One weird thing I noticed:

on Batocera 33, Video out gives two options - Auto and DIsplayPort-1
on Batocera 34 Beta, two options are Auto and DIsplayPort-3 - yet the adapter has been connected to the same display port at all times after diagnosing changing the port makes no difference.

sem

Atari

You can get blocked from Github? That’s one helluvah achievement. I guess in the future if you need to add additional information, you should just edit the first post instead of making another one.

sem

Atari Not the sort of achievement that’s helpful though. Sigh.

I may throw a basic Ubuntu install on a USB and see if that boots fine. Narrow things down a little more. But I spent a little time playing with Retrobat on Windows. Not quite as nice an experience but with the extra video driver options, it’s swings and roundabouts. This appears to be an issue with Ryzen and the X86 build going by reports.

sem

Bit more experimentation. I’m using a Logitech K400 combined keyboard and touchpad with Logitech unifying receiver. Works well in windows and in Batocera on the NUC. Wondered if that was causing an issue so put on a USB Keyboard. Booted up ok and I could Alt CTRL F3 to see terminal output but forgot I had set Storage to “any external” as a test. So plugged in my experimental Kingston USB drive as well but wasn’t sure which I was booting off so went into bios to check boot order. Priority is UEFI boot but notices legacy was still being displayed on the page. Disabled this (HP bios is weird. Once disabled you have to jump through hoops to re enable. ) and rebooted to change Sandisk V33 install back to internal. Rebooted again expecting no display. But it booted. And had gone through about 7 reboots fine since. Even with the Logitech reconnected

not saying it’s 100% fixed but will play it as I would normally over the weekend. Will report back whether it still behaves or not.

sem

Well, it behaved and booted to V33 from the Sandisk perfectly all over the weekend. So I’d say that it’s cured and must put it down to HP’s lousy bios implementation.

so what worked for me was totally disabling Legacy Boot.

Sem

gammelfar

SeltzerBing

sem

Thanks! Have a 705 G4 and this has been making crazy. Cant wait to get home and test it out.

SeltzerBing

I had the same problem with an HP Elitedesk 705 G4. I would boot to Windows without fail but when booting to Batocera on a USB drive I would get the splash screen and then blank most times. Sometimes it would boot completely.

Disabling Legacy Boot solved it for me. Was frustrating until I found this forum.

Deluxe

SeltzerBing you saved the day! I am using Batocera 35 on an external HD and setting the option to “Legacy Support Disable and Secure Boot Disable” did the trick!

RaiderBlack

I have the exact same problem but for me it’s more complicated since I’ve installed batocera directly on my SSD.

Worked just fine on my previous intel based g3 prodesk, but now that I switched to a 705 G5 I’m having the exact same issues as mentioned in the thread.

If I disable legacy boot the drive won’t boot at all, prompting an error message from the HP bios. If I disable it, I can get into batocera, in maybe 1 of 15 times. The rest are just black screens. This problem is infuriating, as there seem to be no rime or reason at all.

I mean, it should either work or not work. Not “boot sometimes”.

RaiderBlack

Ok. Following the tips in the thread I solved the issue as well on my Elitedesk 705 G5 mini. So as previously mentioned in the thread there is a solution.

However! The mentioned cause of error is misleading as it’s not about legacy boot, but rather the problem lies in HPs stupid bios settings for secure boot. For some reason the secure boot settings as well as legacy boot settings are grouped together in bios.

To solve the problem, you need to change the secure boot options under Advanced > Secure Boot Configuration > Configure Legacy Support and Secure Boot and select Legacy Boot Disable and Secure Boot Disable.

By doing this. You disable Secure Boot witch solves the problem, but the solution has nothing to do with the legacy boot changes. It just happens to be the only way to disable Secure Boot in bios.

This solution work with Batocera on external drive as well as Batocera on internal drive (as I have).