7.1 desktop GUI/VNC log in issue

[weaver]

Firstly - I am well aware that this is outside of a standard install and as such is not necessarily within the scope of this forum but am posting it in case anyone has experienced anything similar or knows of a likely reason why this should happen.

I have always used moOde headless but with a desktop installed which I use via VNC - basically to give me access to a browser on the Pi and the ability to play catch up services (eg BBC Sounds) and sites such as Bandcamp directly from the Pi, and this has worked well on a couple of 3B+ units and an Allo USBridge Sig. up to moOde 7.

Having tried both in place updates and a couple of clean installs of 7.1 there is a point at which proceeding with this set-up stops the moOde UI from working, ie. won't load at all or stays frozen.

Having gone through a step by step process the sticking point appears to be trying to auto-login to a Pi desktop GUI. If I revert to boot to desktop with a login prompt then both the desktop and the moOde UI on iOS and Android are fine. If I switch to auto-login on boot the Pi side is fine (and I can SSH into moOde) but the mobile UI doesn't load.

I'm hoping there is a relatively simple answer like it just being a security conflict and don't expect anyone to spend any time trying to trouble shoot it for me. If it simply means that I now need to manually log-in on start up then that's fine; much of the time I don't use the desktop at all so if the mobile side will carry on regardless and it is one more step on start up to get the desktop to work then so be it, it's probably more secure that way in any case.

Thanks for reading, please ignore if too far off topic.

Heh yes no idea why you'd want to do this.
I suspect your Pi may be running out of memory, there was some talk on the forum that Chromium has been using a lot more memory on the later builds when enabled for a local display which would be a Chromium issue that may or may not be ongoing. Running a DE as well maybe too much.

Still there's no reason to be running a DE on Moode, usually as soon as someone says they're using VNC to access something not on MS Windows it's a sign that we're entering an XY Problem, an overcomplicated approach to a simple problem.
For example you could use Moode's Bluetooth renderer for sending BBC Sounds and Bandcamp, it's not as if these are high quality sources so you're not gaining anything by avoiding Bluetooth.

Thank you. I have read of the memory issues and that may yet be the case, I found it odd that logging on to the DE manually worked whereas letting the Pi do it automatically didn't.
As to Bluetooth, yes I have used this function (though off the top of my head I can't remember whether the USBridge Sig has Bluetooth, I know it needs an extra dongle for wifi) however, I find BBC Sounds and even more so Bandcamp much easier to use in a full size browser window (on PC) rather than their respective apps.
It may also just be an age thing and what I find most comfortable to interact with based on past usage.