Cubie a5e: No HDMI output

#1

Hello,
I am trying to start using my new radxa cubie a5e. I flashed the SD card with PhoenixCard V4.3.1 in start-up (not product) mode with the image found in the docs:
“a527_linux_cubie_a5e_uart0_beta_20250211.img”.
When power is plugged in, I get an initial green light from the LED, then it starts flickering blue. (Which seems to be the expected behavior). However when I plug it into an HDMI monitor I get nothing. I tried a second monitor and the same thing happens. These monitors have worked on other devices.
I also tried plugging the device into a LAN via ethernet, and ssh-ing into it, but It doesn’t seem to connect to the network.
I don’t really need to have the monitor work as long as I can ssh into it. So if there is a way to enable ssh without using a monitor I am open to that too.

Any advice on how to get this to work would be great. Besides trying even more monitors, I am out of ideas.

#2

I tried that image when I first had my cubie, but it didn’t work for me for some reason, perhaps it was something I did

but the a527_cubie_a5e_bullseye_beta_20250303_raw_disk image works perfectly so far.

#3

Thanks for the quick response g8ryj,
I just tried that image, PhoenixCard was giving me an error when loading the image. I was able to flash using balena etcher, but then it was back to the initial issue of the HDMI monitor not displaying anything.

#4

I flashed with balena etcher too and it worked for me.
HDMI was working and I could see on my router that it had requested an IP address through DHCP, so I could SSH directly into it.
I couldn’t get the wifi to work though.

#5

The HDMI didn’t work, but you are right it did take an IP address, I was able to ssh in!
Thanks for the help g8ryj!

#6

I got wifi working working with the image a527_cubie_a5e_bullseye_beta_20250303_raw_disk by following this example:
https://wiki.somlabs.com/index.php/Connecting_to_WiFi_network_using_systemd_and_wpa-supplicant

Even nvme is working with this image. Don’t know yet how to boot from it.