Hi Amber,
The Nerves system for the Raspberry Pi Zero boots headless. The logos come from the Linux kernel, but after Linux puts them there, nothing uses HDMI by default. This makes it look it’s not working, but it really is.
There are a couple ways of accessing the IEx prompt on the RPi Zero. I think that the easiest is by using the virtual Ethernet interface that goes over the USB port. This only works on the data USB connector which is close to the middle of the board. The other connector is power only. On your computer, you should see a new network device show up when you plug the RPi Zero into it. After it boots and the LED starts blinking like a heart beat, you should be able to ping nerves.local and ssh nerves.local to get to the prompt.
The other option for the Raspberry Pi Zero W is to set up networking so that it connects to a nearby WiFi access point. This can be hardcoded in your application’s target.exs in the vintage_net section, manually set over USB once, or by adding a dependency to vintage_net_wizard. The cookbook has some examples.
If all else fails and you’re getting frustrated with Nerves, the Elixir Circuits project has pre-built firmware and a guide that may help too. See Elixir Circuits Quickstart.
