Blank screen and unstable image switch in Balena install with rPi4

Anthias
1

Hi,

I just setup an install of Screenly OSE in Balena using a rPi4:

  • Balena supervisor: 14.4.4
  • rPi4 (64bit)
  • balena push was done docker-compose.balena.yml using latest-pi4 tag

The setup worked fine from a software perspective, I can access the settings page using the public or local URL, upload the assets, define the schedule and the logs in balena are clean (even with debug mode enabled):

 srly-ose-viewer  Current url is /data/screenly_assets/cd2ca76f06334a388e75a6dbfc741d62.png
 srly-ose-viewer  Sleeping for 10
 srly-ose-viewer  Showing asset getready.png (image)
 srly-ose-viewer  Current url is /data/screenly_assets/51d5f0f15dd944c3b4382a682b4b0fce.png
 srly-ose-viewer  Sleeping for 10
 srly-ose-viewer  Showing asset makeyourowrkout.png (image)
 srly-ose-viewer  Current url is /data/screenly_assets/cb260bd524454c39b96df37f512d6cbb.png
 srly-ose-viewer  Sleeping for 10
 srly-ose-viewer  Showing asset plans.png (image)
 srly-ose-viewer  Current url is /data/screenly_assets/cd2ca76f06334a388e75a6dbfc741d62.png
 srly-ose-viewer  Sleeping for 10
 srly-ose-viewer  Showing asset getready.png (image)
 srly-ose-viewer  Current url is /data/screenly_assets/51d5f0f15dd944c3b4382a682b4b0fce.png
 srly-ose-viewer  Sleeping for 10

However, the problem is that the display of images is very inconsistent. Sometimes the display show the image, sometimes show a blank screen, sometimes the image is too stretched and partially loaded. Webpages always show a blank screen instead of the pages. I tried with different TVs and the behavior is the same.

Is there anything I could do to debug this problem better?
Do the assets used needs to have specific formats or size? (I’m using pngs)

Thank you!

2

Can you try making the time the asset is active longer? try 60 seconds each, again just for testing purposes.

3

Hi,

Yes, I’ve set 60 secs and also tried setting only one asset only and the problem still persists.

One time I tested 2 webpages, one very lightweight (no images) and a landing page of my company. Only the lightweight one worked.

Thank you

4

Sorry since I know there is some work being done on balena side, I wont comment any further, I would suggest if possible, install screenly via bash script on a raspbian bullseye lite image, it should work perfectly fine.

5

Fair enough, thanks for your response. I’ll try without balena.