HDMI to VGA

[crazymonkie]

Hi everyone! I just got my raspberry pi a few days ago and I'm anxious to get started. I have an issue (of course.... why else would I be here?) I have an HDMI to VGA converter that I bought at a computer store for use with a ViewSonic VA1703wb VGA monitor. I had to go back and get a male-to-male VGA adapter because the two connectors were from the Pi and monitor ends were both female. Currently, the adapter is connecting the monitor to the Pi directly, no VGA cable.

What I need to know is this: Do I need a VGA cable? Did I simply buy the wrong monitor (it powers on but says there's no signal)? I'd hate to have to shell out big bucks for a DVI or worse, HDMI monitor.

Before anyone asks, I bought a pre-loaded SD card with raspbian on it, and the monitor is fine... it just isn't showing anything on it. Thanks ahead of time for any assistance!

[drgeoff]

1. Have a look at the markings on the square black chip in the middle of the RPi board. Do you see an 'M' with a tilted ellipse? If yes, there is a possibility that your pre-loaded SD card does not have sufficiently up to date firmware to work with that manufacturer's RAM chip. If you do have an 'M' RAM please describe exactly what happens to the green ACT LED when you power up your RPi with the SD card inserted.

2. Can you provide a link to your HDMI to VGA converter, or one that looks the same?

[crazymonkie]

Hey,

Ok, I'm unfortunately at work right now, so I can't answer (1) yet, but as far as (2),

http://www.frys.com/product/7607837?sit ... IN_RSLT_PG

I had to get a male-to-male VGA gender changer, this one:
http://www.frys.com/product/5289557?sit ... IN_RSLT_PG
.... so that it would link up.

I'll be able to check on the RPi to see about the RAM chip in about 12 hours. Gotta love 11 hour shifts, no?

In any case, thanks again.... I'm just starting out from the Windows training wheels (7 specifically.... I feel like 8 was designed specifically to make anyone with even a tiny bit of intelligence feel like m$ is speaking baby talk to the end user), so there's been a learning curve and I've had to be patient and perseverent. My main computer is running Slackware 14.0 as my main OS, so that's been helping (forcing?) me to get better too.

[klricks]

Normally the VGA cable that hooks between monitor and computer is male on one end and female on the other end. So as you found you need a gender changer if you don't have the cable.

Some converters don't get detected properly at boot up so the RPi reverts to composite. If you you can edit a config file to force HDMI.

Some HDMI to VGA cables draw too much power and crash the RPi. It's better to get one with it''s own power supply, I have this one, works well:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006JW ... d_i=507846

[crazymonkie]

That one has a power supply all its own. The systems seems to have figured out that error, and now it's giving me an entirely new one, and what seems to be a bigger one. There are several panic messages, including from drivers/rtc/hctosy.c ("unable to open rtc device (rtc0), EXT4-fs (ummcblk0p2): unable to read superblock, Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(179,2), and PANIC: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(179,2).

Then there's a space, then a line that says "Entering kdb (current-oxdb8300, pid 1) due to Keyboard Entry, then a command line prompt below that that says kbd> where the prompt doesn't do anything no matter what I press on the keyboard.

Do I have the wrong keyboard now? I've got a HP KU-0316, tried to connect it directly to the Pi and to a USB hub I bought (this one: http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/SIIG-U ... -H00012-S1), which itself may or may not be a problem (it's powered, but I don't know if it's 5V, nor compatible with ARM architecture, nor with Raspbian.... though if the OS has the same amount of driver support as Debian, that should be fine.)

Again, any help is appreciated, and I thank those who have replied already!

[crazymonkie]

*bump*
.... Anyone know what all that stuff means?