It is either cec-ctl or VLC, not both on Raspberry Pi 3 B+ Bullseye

Question

My Node.js project utilizes CEC control and VLC where the app turns on the TV and chooses the HDMI port that the VLC video stream will be viewed on at a scheduled time. Everything worked on Buster except that too many indeterminate crashes with segmentation faults occur with cec-client. Since I am nearing a 'production' release, I thought it best to upgrade the OS to Bullseye and find a cec-client replacement. I found cec-ctl and made it asynchronous - ctl-cec works perfectly, everytime, no crashes. BUT, now VLC does not render anything, not even a black screen. Doing a 'ps' command during a time that a video should be playing, I can see that VLC is running.

What I tried: It turns out that changing the /boot/config.txt dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d (Buster) to dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d (Bullseye) causes the problem. The Buster version of dtoverlay seems to be required for VLC to run, and The Bullseye version of dtoverlay is required for a /dev/cec0 to be created and used by ctl-cec. All I can see from my inexperienced view is mutual exclusivity, but this doesn't feel like this is the final answer. Using both dtoverlay version (Buster/Bullseye) will brick the pi (speaking from the very recent experience of one not well-versed in dtoverlays). I also tried: I Googled this problem to the extent of my search skills and have not been able to resolve this problem.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Raspbian OS: Bullseye (Desktop) Raspberry Pi 3 B+ App: Node.js based with ability to make config changes and set schedules via an external browser within the LAN.

Answer 1

The solution for my project, after days of Googling, turned out to be TOO simple (found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinuxarm/comments/lg4z5u/no_hdmi_audio_via_alsa_on_raspberry_pi_400/ ):

• sudo apt install pulseaudio
  along with:
• dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d
  VLC and cec-ctl now work together perfectly on Raspberry Pi 3B+/Bullseye