# Unable to Open Display (Chrome, Pi) **URL:** \ **Category:** Product support\ **Tags:** raspberrypi3\ **Created:** [March 21, 2019, 5:15am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unable-to-open-display-chrome-pi/5685 "2019-03-21T05:15:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Medistream](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/medistream/32/1085_2.png) [@Medistream](https://forums.balena.io/u/Medistream)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2019, 5:15am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unable-to-open-display-chrome-pi/5685/1 "2019-03-21T05:15:16Z")
Occasionally on reboot I’m not able to open the display. It gets stuck on the splash screen. This specifically seems to happen after pushing an update from Balena. Is there a setting I should change to make sure it kills x windows on start? Any tips to avoid this issue? ``` 20.03.19 12:35:45 (-0400) frontend (EE) 20.03.19 12:35:45 (-0400) frontend Fatal server error: 20.03.19 12:35:45 (-0400) frontend (EE) Server is already active for display 0 20.03.19 12:35:45 (-0400) frontend If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock 20.03.19 12:35:45 (-0400) frontend and start again. 20.03.19 12:35:45 (-0400) frontend (EE) 20.03.19 12:35:45 (-0400) frontend (EE) 20.03.19 12:35:45 (-0400) frontend Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 20.03.19 12:35:45 (-0400) frontend at [http://wiki.x.org](http://wiki.x.org/) 20.03.19 12:35:45 (-0400) frontend for help. 20.03.19 12:35:45 (-0400) frontend (EE) 20.03.19 12:36:00 (-0400) frontend xinit: giving up 20.03.19 12:36:00 (-0400) frontend xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused 20.03.19 12:36:00 (-0400) frontend xinit: server error ``` ---
**Author:** ![thgreasi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/thgreasi/32/454_2.png) [@thgreasi](https://forums.balena.io/u/thgreasi)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2019, 8:36am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unable-to-open-display-chrome-pi/5685/4 "2019-03-21T08:36:55Z")
Hi, I was a bit confused since originally you said “on reboot” but later added “seems to happen after pushing an update from Balena”. Does happen on device reboot, or during container restart (eg after downloading a new release). Does the issue occur consistently on container restarts? If so, could you try making your container to check whether Xord is already running and connect to it, or kill it and start it again if that’s a better match for you? Could you share some of the code that you use to spin up Xorg along with any special configuration that you use on your docker-compose? Please also clarify the exact OS version & device type that this happens. ---
**Author:** ![Medistream](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/medistream/32/1085_2.png) [@Medistream](https://forums.balena.io/u/Medistream)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2019, 4:39pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unable-to-open-display-chrome-pi/5685/7 "2019-03-21T16:39:34Z")
Hi @thgreasi, thanks for the help. So I have to run some tests because it doesn’t consistently happen. I have seen it occur in all 3 situations though. - After downloading a new release (this seems to happen the most) - On container restarts - Even on a boot, while plugging the unit in (that happened this morning) It does start and boot correctly probably \> 95% of the time though. We’re building a tv app. The app has two containers; - **BACKEND** - which is a node/react app communicating via websockets. - **FRONTEND** - chromium browser connects to the exposed port. We are running on the Raspberry Pi 3+. OS images are; - **BACKEND** : - FROM resin/raspberrypi3-node:8 - **FRONTEND** - FROM balenalib/raspberrypi3-debian:stretch The frontend configuration was actually based on a comment from @ [aliasbits](https://forums.balena.io/u/aliasbits) in this forum, [GUI kiosk on prodution resinOS](https://forums.balena.io/t/gui-kiosk-on-prodution-resinos/3487/4) As it stands. I have; **entrpoint.sh** ``` #!/bin/bash umount /dev/shm && mount -t tmpfs shm /dev/shm env > cron_env_file # start cron cron sleep 25 xinit /home/viewer/launchBrowser.sh -- -nocursor ``` **launchBrowser.sh** ``` #!/bin/bash #Disable DPMS / Screen blanking xset -dpms xset s off xset s noblank URL=$URL default='http://localhost:8888/' while : # run forever do echo "Launching Browser" echo "Browser is ${URL}" DISPLAY=:0 sudo chromium-browser --no-sandbox --window-size=7000,7000 --kiosk --start-fullscreen -a --disable-infobars --no-first-run --disable-web-security --user-data-dir --incognito --allow-file-access-from-files --enable-offline-auto-reload-visible-only --disable-gpu --force-device-scale-factor=0.5 ${URL:-$default} viewer done ``` **Dockerfile:** ``` FROM balenalib/raspberrypi3-debian:stretch USER root RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \ lsb-release \ nano \ chromium-browser \ omxplayer \ scrot \ cron \ sed \ xorg \ xinit \ xinput \ xserver-xorg \ xserver-xorg-legacy \ xserver-xorg-input-evdev \ xserver-xorg-input-libinput \ x11-xserver-utils && \ apt-get clean && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* RUN sed -i "s|allowed_users=console|allowed_users=anybody|" /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config RUN groupmod -g 19 input # may differ RUN groupadd viewer && \ echo ‘notsecure\nnotsecure’ | adduser --home /home/viewer --ingroup viewer viewer && \ usermod -aG tty viewer && \ usermod -aG input viewer COPY entrypoint.sh /home/viewer/entrypoint.sh COPY launchBrowser.sh /home/viewer/launchBrowser.sh COPY screenshoter.sh /home/viewer/screenshoter.sh COPY restartBrowser.sh /home/viewer/restartBrowser.sh COPY restartAllServices.sh /home/viewer/restartAllServices.sh COPY cron_env_file /home/viewer/cron_env_file RUN chmod +x /home/viewer/* RUN chown viewer:viewer /home/viewer/* # Add crontab file in the cron directory ADD crontab /etc/cron.d/hello-cron # Give execution rights on the cron job RUN chmod 0644 /etc/cron.d/hello-cron # Apply cron job RUN crontab /etc/cron.d/hello-cron # Allow viewer user to start cron daemon with sudo RUN echo 'viewer ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/cron' >>/etc/sudoers CMD bash -C "/home/viewer/entrypoint.sh";"bash" ``` ---
**Author:** ![cyplo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/cyplo/32/1224_2.png) [@cyplo](https://forums.balena.io/u/cyplo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2019, 10:56am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unable-to-open-display-chrome-pi/5685/9 "2019-03-22T10:56:25Z")
Could it be a power supply issue, it giving not enough power ? I’ve seen the device being stuck in a certain display states when having power supplies that could not keep up with powering both raspberry pi and the display at the same time. Can you access the device via the terminal while this is happening or is the device as a whole unresponsive ? ---
**Author:** ![Medistream](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/medistream/32/1085_2.png) [@Medistream](https://forums.balena.io/u/Medistream)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unable-to-open-display-chrome-pi/5685/11 "2019-03-22T13:34:39Z")
@cyplo it’s not a power supply issue. I think I’m not configuring it properly. The device powers up. Both containers are running. Backend is logging, I can ssh into frontend/backend containers. It just get’s stuck on the balena splash screen, as it is unable to open display 0. Error message `(EE) Server is already active for display 0` @thgreasi using my dockerfile/sh scripts how would I check the xord is running and properly configure it to make sure that I don’t accidently kill it? here is the docker compose too ``` version: '2' volumes: resin-data: services: frontend: build: ./frontend privileged: true network_mode: "host" depends_on: - backend volumes: - 'resin-data:/data' labels: io.balena.features.supervisor-api: '1' backend: build: ./backend network_mode: "host" ports: - "8888:8888" volumes: - 'resin-data:/data' labels: io.balena.features.supervisor-api: '1' ``` ---
**Author:** ![nazrhom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee59a6/32.png) [@nazrhom](https://forums.balena.io/u/nazrhom)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:28am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unable-to-open-display-chrome-pi/5685/12 "2019-03-25T09:28:47Z")
Hey @Medistream there is nothing that strikes me as wrong in the config you posted. From what I understand, the server will create this lockfile and write into it the PID of the process that is holding this lock. In your entrypoint.sh, before launching `xinit` you could try reading `/tmp/.X0-lock`. If the file is not there, the error shouldn’t occur. If the file is there and contains a PID you could try `ps -p` to get more info on what process is acquiring the lock and eventually use the PID to kill it. Let us know how this goes, we might be able to understand the issue better if we understand how the lockfile is being created. ---
**Author:** ![Medistream](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/medistream/32/1085_2.png) [@Medistream](https://forums.balena.io/u/Medistream)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 2:22am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unable-to-open-display-chrome-pi/5685/16 "2019-04-04T02:22:28Z")
@nazrhom thanks this helped me look in the right place(I think). I just pushed out an update. stuck at the splash screen and I have this. ``` 03.04.19 22:12:24 (-0400) frontend xinit: giving up 03.04.19 22:12:24 (-0400) frontend xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused 03.04.19 22:12:24 (-0400) frontend xinit: server error ``` There is a `/tmp/.X0-lock.` When I cat it I get **19** But when I run top there is no process with id 19 I get… ``` Tasks: 5 total, 1 running, 4 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie %Cpu(s): 0.0 us, 0.0 sy, 0.0 ni,100.0 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st KiB Mem : 765684 total, 352760 free, 167580 used, 245344 buff/cache KiB Swap: 0 total, 0 free, 0 used. 562208 avail Mem PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 1 root 20 0 1428 384 340 S 0.0 0.1 0:00.20 sh 17 root 20 0 4724 1692 1468 S 0.0 0.2 0:00.01 cron 20 root 20 0 4612 2296 2132 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.01 bash 21 root 20 0 4620 2596 2220 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.13 bash ``` Any idea where to go from here? ---
**Author:** ![dansku](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dansku/32/1183_2.png) [@dansku](https://forums.balena.io/u/dansku)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unable-to-open-display-chrome-pi/5685/17 "2019-04-04T15:06:00Z")
@Medistream, to do a hardware test, could you try running this project on your device and see if it works ok? > **[Running a full desktop in a container](https://www.balena.io/blog/running-a-desktop-manager-with-balena/)** > > While building your next Internet-of-things (IoT) project, sometimes you get to a point where you need to run applications that are made to run on a screen, we call them graphical user interface (GUI) applications. After multiple requests from our... ---
**Author:** ![Medistream](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/medistream/32/1085_2.png) [@Medistream](https://forums.balena.io/u/Medistream)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 6:08pm UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unable-to-open-display-chrome-pi/5685/18 "2019-04-17T18:08:26Z")
@dansku Thanks I’ve tried that. It’s not a hardware issue I have 35 Pi’s to work with here 🙂 I seem to have a fix for it. I’m not too familiar with X window system stuff more of a web dev. If I understand the problem properly. The display is blocked by being in use and if it doesn’t properly shut down it creates a lock file to prevent a user from accessing it? I added ``` # Remove X lock sudo rm /tmp/.X0-lock ``` to the entrypoint file and it seems to have fixed it. I’ve tried rebooting and pushing about 20 times and it looks good here. Is there anything I should be aware of with this? ---
**Author:** ![dansku](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/dansku/32/1183_2.png) [@dansku](https://forums.balena.io/u/dansku)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2019, 10:26am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/unable-to-open-display-chrome-pi/5685/19 "2019-04-18T10:26:11Z")
@Medistream that is great, thanks for reporting back! Nothing that I can think at the moment that you should be aware of. But if you encounter any other issues please let us know! All the best!