gemma_m0 dotstar behaving oddly on boot/REPL entry

With the current master 5.0 and with 4.1.0 my gemma_m0 seems to work OK, but the Dotstar LED is behaving oddly on boot and REPL entry.
On boot or reset, it flashes quickly - red, blue, white
on REPL entry it can be different colors - blue, light blue, light red (pink) - mostly blue - it may just be whatever the flashing color stopped at.

I have not tried older versions of CP.

edited to add:
the dotstar works OK when commanded from the REPL