Jetson Xavier NX wont display gui after boot screen on fresh install (JetPack 5.1.4)

Hello. I have a Jetson Xavier NX Devkit that I borrowed from my Institute and tried to flash JetPack 5.1.4 using the SDK Manager (2.2.0.12028). The flashing method I did :

  1. Shorting pin Force Recovery to ground for the whole flash session
  2. Plugging in C data Cable to both Host Computer (Ubuntu 20.1) and Jetson Xavier
  3. Opening SDK Manager and chose Target Hardware as Jetson Xavier NX module Devkit along with JetPack version
  4. Check out only the flash and os installation part
  5. SDK finished installing
  6. Plug out shorting cable from pin FC to ground

I can confirm the installation went great since after the SDK finished, I plugged my HDMI Cable to the module board and it shows the usual Ubuntu desktop environment. I do the usual fresh os start up setup (username, password, etc).

However, the problem arise after this. Soon after I rebooted the device, It shows the usual NVIDIA boot logo and the process log. But after that, my monitor does not receive any other display input from the module. Also, I can still access the module by network through SSH. It’s just the module wont display anything to my monitor after nvidia boot display. With these information in mind, I can safely assume that this is not a hardware problem.

Extra Informations :

NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX Developer Kit 16GB (6.0-37391689) ← version from boot menu
Using NVMe 1TB SSD
SDK Version (JetPack 5.1.4)
SDK Manager (2.2.0.12028 x86_64)
Host Machine (Ubuntu 20.04 - x86_64)

Boot screen log :

Jetson UEFI firmware [version 6.0-37391689 built on 2024-08-28T08:47:11+00:00)
ESC to enter Setup.
F11 to enter Boot Manager Menu.
Enter to continue boot.
** WARNING: Test Key is used. ** 
L4TLauncher: Attempting Direct Boot
EFI stub: Booting Linux Kernel...
EFI stub: Using DTB from configuration table 
EFI stub: Loaded initrd from LINUX_EFI_INITRD_MEDIA_GUID device path
EFI stub: Exiting boot services and installing virtual address map...

<then after this screen, it goes blank; no signal to monitor/display received.>

What I’ve tried so far :

  • Picked different module type at the SDK Manager Target Hardware option (P000 to P001-3) for each re-flash session
  • Tried different method of Flash Setup on flashing (Runtime and Pre-configured for username and stuff)
  • Immediately plugged out shorting pin after module went into force recovery mode (re-flashing)
  • Update the system (apt update && apt upgrade) immediately after setting up the module

What I have not tried :

  • Redownloading JetPack on SDK Manager (might be an image faulty, i assume?)
  • Flashing manually through scripts (I have no idea where to start)

Kinda hitting a dead end here
Am in in the right track? If there is any extra information needed, I would gladly show it here. Any pointers or help would be really appreciated!

Hi @tejasukmanajason

It seems that your Xavier NX is working after the flash since you can access it with SSH. How much time have you waited after the screen goes blank after the boot display? I have experienced that I need to plug the HDMI, mouse, and keyboard into the device before turning it on in order to pass through the boot display. It might be worth trying it out.

I am also curious; do you have any particular reason that you need the screen display even you have SSH access to your device?

Thank you,

Ricardo GonzĂĄlez VĂ­quez
Embedded SW Engineer at RidgeRun
Contact us: support@ridgerun.com
Developers wiki: https://developer.ridgerun.com
Website: www.ridgerun.com

1 Like

Hi @ricardo.gonzalez1,

Thanks for the reply!

I’m glad to know the module seems to be working fine, set aside the display issue. Though unfortunately, the screen still isn’t showing anything after waiting for about 30 minutes using the method you suggested. I also tried using another monitor, but that didn’t help either.

I noticed the fan spins really fast after the boot screen for about 5 seconds, but then it stops for the entire session, which may be normal, though I thought it was worth mentioning.

As for your question, I plan to use the module for research purpose, and having a graphical environment for GUI debugging would be really helpful alongside terminal logging. Also, it would be reassuring to know I can return the module in flawless condition, as I borrowed it in the first place. XD

In the meantime, I’m redownloading the JetPack through SDK Manager and will keep an eye on the post for any other suggestions. Will update on the progress as well!

Once again, really appreciate the suggestion. Thank you!

Hi @tejasukmanajason

I will be researching your error to give you support. In the meantime, you can access the device on SSH with the -X or -Y flag and with it you can open files with the xdg-open command to have a visual view of things. I must say that this might turn your host computer a bit slow so use it when needed.

Do you know the resolutions of both of the monitors that you tested?

Thank you,

Ricardo GonzĂĄlez VĂ­quez
Embedded SW Engineer at RidgeRun
Contact us: support@ridgerun.com
Developers wiki: https://developer.ridgerun.com
Website: www.ridgerun.com

1 Like

For the monitor I tested, the first one has 1366x768 resolutions, as for the second one it has 1920x1080. I also tried using different HDMI Cables, and to no suprise; it still doesn’t work.

Do let me know once again if there is any other relevant information needed.

Thank you!

Hi @tejasukmanajason

Could you tell me your output after running the following command on the jetson after starting a SSH session?

# Shows the connected and disconnected displays
sudo xrandr

# Lists the connected monitors
xrandr --listmonitors

If something appears on this, it means that the device is detecting the monitor. If a display appears with a name similar to HDMI-0, try enabling it manually with:

# Adjust the HDMI-0 based on your output
xrandr --output HDMI-0 --auto

If this doesn’t seem to work, could we try reinstalling the display drivers?

sudo apt update
sudo apt reinstall nvidia-l4t-x11

Then reboot your device. Please update me if this works.

Regards,

Ricardo GonzĂĄlez VĂ­quez
Embedded SW Engineer at RidgeRun
Contact us: support@ridgerun.com
Developers wiki: https://developer.ridgerun.com
Website: www.ridgerun.com

1 Like

Hi @ricardo.gonzalez1, sorry for the late update.
Last week, I tried reinstalling JetPack using a fresh image downloaded through SDK Manager for both versions 5.1.4 and 5.1.3, but neither resolved the issue. Given this, I think we can rule out image corruption as the cause for now.

Regarding your suggestion, xrandr doesn’t show display output when accessed through an SSH session on my Jetson. I confirmed the same behavior on my laptop :

┌─[Jasont@Arch-LP] - [~] - [2025-02-10 04:12:15]                                                                   
└─[0] <> xrandr                                                                                                    
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767                                                
eDP1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 340mm x 190mm                      
   1920x1080     60.00*+  48.00                                                                                    
    ....
    ....
*[Irrelevant Output.]*
┌─[Jasont@Arch-LP] - [~] - [2025-02-10 04:12:24]                                                                   
└─[0] <> ssh Jasont@localhost                                                                                                                                                                      
Last login: Mon Feb 10 03:40:52 2025 from ::1                                                                      
┌─[Jasont@Arch-LP] - [~] - [2025-02-10 04:12:34]                                                                   
└─[0] <> xrandr                                                                                                    
Can't open display                                                                                                                                  
┌─[Jasont@Arch-LP] - [~] - [2025-02-10 04:12:37]                                                                   
└─[1] <> sudo xrandr                                                                                                                                                                               
Can't open display                                                                                                 
┌─[Jasont@Arch-LP] - [~] - [2025-02-10 04:12:41]                                                                   
└─[1] <> xrandr --listmonitors                                                                                     
Can't open display                                                                                                                                                                                        
┌─[Jasont@Arch-LP] - [~] - [2025-02-10 04:12:48]                                                                   
└─[1] <> sudo xrandr --listmonitors                                                                                
Can't open display                                                                                                 

I tried reinstalling the display driver as you instructed

sudo apt update
sudo apt reinstall nvidia-l4t-x11

and it still doesn’t work after restart. I made sure to have HDMI attached to the module FWIW.

Though, thanks to your suggestions, I found a strange behavior that resulted in the module displaying to the screen. Though, it went back to ground zero after restarting the module. Here’s what i did :

  1. Plug in HDMI Cable to Jetson and power up. Wait for it to pass the boot screen
  2. If Jetson is not displaying, plug off HDMI Cable
  3. Get into ssh session and reboot
  4. Wait for Jetson to reboot. HDMI cable is still plugged off.
  5. After finished booting, get on ssh session and reboot again.
  6. Again, wait for Jetson to reboot. HDMI cable is still plugged off.
  7. After a few seconds of boot, Plug in HDMI Cable.
  8. A login screen showed up here. If jetson is still not displaying, redo step 2 to step 7. It should work the second time.

Again, display went back to no signal again after restarting this session. I suspect this might be related to the kernel not loading the display driver correctly at boot, so I attempted to reload the video driver using modprobe.
In the failed display session, I tried reloading the video driver with modprobe (through ssh) :

jetsonnn@ubuntu:~$ lspci -k
0005:00:00.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1ad0 (rev a1)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
0005:01:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983
	Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983
	Kernel driver in use: nvme
jetsonnn@ubuntu:~$ sudo modprobe pcieport
[sudo] password for jetsonnn: 
modprobe: FATAL: Module pcieport not found in directory /lib/modules/5.10.216-tegra

But it can’t find the video driver module.

Extra Informations (Through an active display session) :

jetsonnn@ubuntu: ~ $ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1366 x 768, maximum 32767 x 32767
HDMI-0 connected primary 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 520mm x 290mm
   1366x768      60.08*+
   1920x1080     60.00    59.95    50.00  
   1360x768      60.02  
   1280x768      59.87  
   1280x720      60.00    59.94    50.00  
   1024x768      60.01  
   800x600       60.32  
   720x576       50.00  
   720x480       59.94  
   640x480       59.94  
DP-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

jetsonnn@ubuntu: ~ $ xrandr --listmonitors
Monitors: 1
 0: +*HDMI-0 1366/520x768/290+0+0  HDMI-0

jetsonnn@ubuntu: ~ $ sudo lspci -v
[sudo] password for jetsonnn: 
0005:00:00.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1ad0 (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 26
	Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=ff, sec-latency=0
	I/O behind bridge: [disabled]
	Memory behind bridge: 40000000-400fffff [size=1M]
	Prefetchable memory behind bridge: [disabled]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable+ 64bit+
	Capabilities: [70] Express Root Port (Slot-), MSI 00
	Capabilities: [b0] MSI-X: Enable- Count=8 Masked-
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
	Capabilities: [148] Secondary PCI Express
	Capabilities: [168] Physical Layer 16.0 GT/s <?>
	Capabilities: [190] Lane Margining at the Receiver <?>
	Capabilities: [1c0] L1 PM Substates
	Capabilities: [1d0] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0002 Rev=4 Len=100 <?>
	Capabilities: [2d0] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=038 <?>
	Capabilities: [308] Data Link Feature <?>
	Capabilities: [314] Precision Time Measurement
	Capabilities: [320] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0004 Rev=1 Len=054 <?>
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport

0005:01:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983 (prog-if 02 [NVM Express])
	Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 26
	Memory at 1f40000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/32 Maskable- 64bit+
	Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
	Capabilities: [b0] MSI-X: Enable+ Count=33 Masked-
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
	Capabilities: [148] Device Serial Number 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
	Capabilities: [158] Power Budgeting <?>
	Capabilities: [168] Secondary PCI Express
	Capabilities: [188] Latency Tolerance Reporting
	Capabilities: [190] L1 PM Substates
	Kernel driver in use: nvme

My thoughts on this :

  • It seems like the display driver isn’t initializing correctly at boot. Is there a way to force the proper driver load sequence?
  • Could this be a kernel module issue? Would rebuilding or reloading the relevant modules help?
  • I noticed lspci -k on display only shows pcieport module in both session (display and no display). Is this the right video driver module?
    [note: no-display session is ssh, display session is the jetson desktop environment terminal]

It might be selfish for me to say this, but I would prefer not do the whole plug on off hdmi cable again just to display the screen, as it clearly shows the problem is still there. T-T

Appreciate it again for your insights, and thanks for the help!