1. Home
  2. Help and Support
  3. autostart goes to black screen
Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

autostart goes to black screen

  • alg42

    Hardware: Raspberry Pi 4
    Power supply: Canakit supplied power supply
    RetroPie 4.5.4
    Built From: Built on top of Raspian GNU/Linux 10 (Buster)
    USB Connected devices: Logitech mouse dongle, MS Keyboard, F310 controller
    Guides: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/FAQ/#why-emulationstation-doesnt-start-automatically-after-an-update

    Now that I've gotten past a bad controller, I'm trying to get autostart running so that I can plug everything into our bedroom TV without a keyboard or mouse. I enable autostart through the RetroPie-Setup, Configuration, autostart, and select 1 Start Emulation Station at boot.

    When I restart the Raspberry Pi, I end up with a black screen. I briefly see what looks to be half a dozen or so lines of text but they flash off so fast that I can't read anything. I've looked in the log at es_log.txt in ~/.emulationstation and don't see anything odd in it.

    My autostart.sh in /opt/retropie/configs/all has one line of:

    emulationstation #auto

    I tried hooking it up to the tv and on a boot I see the color square boot splash screen and then it goes black. After a minute the tv says that there isn't any input. I've done a lot of searching and found that on RPI3's there was a HDMI boost but that it is ignored on the 4.

    Please let me know anything that I can try, or specific logs I can pull or grep for keywords in.

    0 BuZz 1 Reply
  • mitu
    Global Moderator

    What resolution does your TV support ? It may be an issue with the detection of your TV's specs. Which mini-HDMI port are you using to connect the TV ? The one next to the power source is the 1st display, make sure the TV is connected to it.

    If you have SSH access, check the resolution used by the system with

    tvservice -s

    and maybe try setting the preferred resolution via

    tvservice -p
    0
  • BuZz
    administrators

    @alg42 how did you install btw?

    0
  • alg42

    So apparently I'm an idiot. Following the guide over at Reddit, I missed one thing. I had the mini-hdmi cable plugged into the second port and not to the port closest to the power supply. Looks like everything is working now.

    0
emulationstaion 198 raspberry pi 4 123 black screen 109 hdmi 109 autostart.sh 14
Log in to reply
 

Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.

Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.