Installing LibreELEC on a broken laptop

    The laptop I'm using has a totally broken screen. After the initial installation, Kodi defaults to displaying on the laptop's screen and not the TV it's plugged into. It's possible to switch the display from the terminal with SSH, but I can't actually enable SSH after a clean install. Is there any other way to either enable SSH, or switch the display?

    Quote from Nicolas


    Hello!

    The most Laptops has FN-Keys for wifi Display etc...
    Have you tried that?

    Regards
    Nicolas

    F4 looks like I'd be the one to change displays, but it does nothing. I pressed every other key out of desperation, and none of them seemed to do anything. The laptop screen still sort of displays colors, so I can kind of get an idea when something is happening.

    Quote from maerk

    F4 looks like I'd be the one to change displays, but it does nothing. I pressed every other key out of desperation, and none of them seemed to do anything. The laptop screen still sort of displays colors, so I can kind of get an idea when something is happening.

    Can you try an external keyboard?

    Quote from bubblegum57

    Can you try an external keyboard?

    I guess I should have worded that differently. I pressed every other function key but none of them did anything. The laptop keyboard works for sure, since I can hear a camera shutter sound when I press print screen and the UI sounds when I press the arrow keys. I also don't have an extra keyboard with shortcuts on the function keys, just old Dell keyboards.

    If you really can't SSH/Samba, my suggestion would be to Plug the laptop's HDD/SSD in another PC/laptop,
    and while connected to the TV the broken laptop will be connected to, create an autostart.sh file with the xrandr command.
    (you might have to guess the HDMI output of the laptop for the xrandr command)

    Edited once, last by vitorp07 (April 26, 2017 at 6:24 AM).

    I to had no display (just cracks of light) on my laptop.

    Try this trick............. laptops typically use a magnet to sense when the screen(lid) is closed. Use a magnet and run it close to the top edge of the hinge till you see the broken screen flicker off.
    Keep the magnet there.
    Now turn off the computer and turn it back on. The computer will disable the laptop display (thinking the laptop is closed up) and LibreELEC will default to your HDMI1.


    Good Luck :rolleyes:

    Thanks for all the suggestions, but I just ended up installing regular old Ubuntu with Kodi installed. I'll probably try to get LibreELEC on there some other time.