RPi Easy SD Card Setup - eLinux.org

to test analogue output:
./hello_audio.bin
and:
./hello_audio.bin 1
to test HDMI.
Also note that you may have to add your user to the 'audio' group to get permission to
access the sound card.
Display
Startx fails to start
If you just get errors instead of a desktop when typing
startx
you may be out of storage space on the SD card. By default there are only a few hundred
MB free in the 2 GB main partition, which can quickly fill up if you download files.
Make sure there is some space free (gparted can expand a partition, if the SD card is >
2GB). Also, installing some software may incorrectly create or modify a .Xauthority file
in your home directory, causing startx to fail, according to this thread
(http://www.raspberrypi.org/forum/troubleshooting/startx-fails-worked-yesterday) .
Temporarily renaming, moving, or deleting that file may fix the problem.
Screen is the wrong color
Check and see if the DVI cable is screwed in properly. If that doesn't work then try this
section.
Video does not play or plays very slowly
The only hardware-accelerated video player is in the XBMC distribution
(http://www.raspberrypi.org/forum/general-discussion/openelec-meets-raspberry-pipart-1-xbmc)
and its command line variant omxplayer. H264 is the only hardwareaccelerated
codec, for playback. No hardware encoding is supported. Additional codecs
were not purchased as licensing fees would have increased the R-Pi's price.