================================================================================ RASPBERRY PI 4 CD PLAYER SETUP - PYGAME + VLC + PULSEAUDIO AT BOOT

Hardware: Raspberry Pi 4 with NanoSound One OS: Raspberry Pi OS Lite (no desktop, multi-user.target) Display: HDMI via pygame 1.9.6 (fbcon framebuffer driver) Audio: VLC + PulseAudio/ALSA Date: April 2026

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PROBLEM SUMMARY

Running a pygame + VLC python script at boot via systemd failed because:

1. pygame could not open a display (no controlling TTY)
2. getty@tty1 was holding /dev/tty1, blocking fbcon access
3. A user service lacks the session context needed for TTY/framebuffer access

Solution: Use a system-level systemd service that owns /dev/tty1 directly, and mask getty@tty1 so nothing else holds the console.

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STEP 1 - DISABLE GETTY ON TTY1

getty is the login prompt that holds /dev/tty1 at boot. It must be masked so your script can take exclusive control of the framebuffer.

sudo systemctl stop getty@tty1 sudo systemctl disable getty@tty1 sudo systemctl mask getty@tty1

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STEP 2 - PYTHON SCRIPT ENVIRONMENT (top of cdplayer12.py)

These lines must appear at the very top of your script, before any other imports, especially before 'import pygame'.

import os import sys

os.environ['SDL_VIDEODRIVER'] = 'fbcon' os.environ['SDL_FBDEV'] = '/dev/fb0' os.environ['SDL_NOMOUSE'] = '1' os.environ['HOME'] = '/home/pi' os.environ['XDG_RUNTIME_DIR'] = '/run/user/1000' os.environ['PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH'] = '/run/user/1000/pulse'

import pygame

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STEP 3 - SYSTEMD SERVICE FILE

Create the service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/cdplayer.service

Contents:

[Unit] Description=CD Player After=local-fs.target sound.target Wants=sound.target

[Service] Type=simple User=pi Group=pi TTYPath=/dev/tty1 StandardInput=tty StandardOutput=tty StandardError=journal #TTYReset=yes #TTYVHangup=yes #TTYVTDisallocate=yes

#ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/cdplayer12.py ExecStart=/bin/bash -c '/usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/cdplayer12.py >> /home/pi/cdplayer.log 2>&1'

Restart=on-failure RestartSec=5

Environment=SDL_VIDEODRIVER=fbcon Environment=SDL_FBDEV=/dev/fb0 Environment=SDL_NOMOUSE=1 Environment=SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa Environment=HOME=/home/pi Environment=XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000 Environment=PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH=/run/user/1000/pulse

[Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target

Key service options explained: TTYPath=/dev/tty1 - assigns /dev/tty1 to this service StandardInput=tty - gives the process a real controlling terminal TTYReset=yes - resets TTY state on service stop TTYVHangup=yes - hangs up TTY on service stop TTYVTDisallocate=yes - releases virtual terminal on service stop SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa - bypasses PulseAudio for SDL, uses ALSA directly

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STEP 4 - ENABLE AND START THE SERVICE

sudo systemctl daemon-reload sudo systemctl enable cdplayer sudo systemctl start cdplayer

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STEP 5 - VERIFY IT IS RUNNING

sudo systemctl status cdplayer sudo journalctl -u cdplayer -f

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STEP 6 - MANUAL DEBUG (if needed)

Run the script manually as the pi user with the same environment as the service:

sudo -u pi SDL_VIDEODRIVER=fbcon SDL_FBDEV=/dev/fb0 python3 /home/pi/cdplayer12.py

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NOTES

• pi user groups required: video, tty (pi was already in both by default)
• No group changes to pi were necessary in this setup
• User ID 1000 is the default for the pi user; verify with: id -u pi
• If you rename your script, update ExecStart in the service file accordingly
• To check if another process is holding tty1: systemctl status getty@tty1
• To unmask getty in future if needed: sudo systemctl unmask getty@tty1

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Note groups that make this work? pi : pi adm tty dialout cdrom sudo audio video plugdev games users input render netdev spi i2c gpio

if you need to use the pi normally again enable tty1 and disable cdplayer