fbtft

[nowhinjing]

Sorry folks, I am in the process of moving house and can not add much to this discussion for the next couple of weeks.

I still outstanding when I get my act back together, I'll take a look.

[jgrulich]

Are you using the right version of the modules, means -piCore_v7+ for the arm7 (RPi2 and RPi3) and -piCore+ for the arm6?
If so, look in the /lib and search the TFT related modules from your tft.tcz. They need to be in the regular modules folder and listed in the modules.dep.

[jordache]

hey nnowhinjing, no worries...thanks for taking any time at all!  good luck with the move, perhaps i'll hit you up again once you're settled

jgrulich, yeah i'm definitely using the -piCore+ versions (for pi zero).  i've been doing a LOT of research, seems like i might have to load additional modules.  i'm not really sure.  honestly, i have been reading/studying for hours each day and it's still a lot to learn!  i've tried most of the things that have been posted (including all of your helpful posts) and yet it still doesn't seem to be working.  i'm kind of at a loss, not sure where to go from here.  also, the tft folder is showing up in the list of modules (?) so it seems like that is being loaded.  the problem is that "flexfb" is nowhere to be found still.  where would i find that, and how would i call that as a command line option? ("sudo modprobe flexfb")

@greg, thanks for taking the time to consider this one!  i understand you weren't on the coding or the "official" screen stuff....but you understand everything a LOT more than me, so perhaps you can help if what i need becomes clearer.  basically the problem seems to be that most stuff is loading ok, but i'm still looking for the "flexfb" module.  as far as i know, most of the stuff is the same as the "official" screen, just different driver settings.

@greg, one thing you might be able to answer for me though:  i can install 2.06 on my pi zero no problem using the "newconfig" with my wifi settings.  on first boot, it connects to network, all is good!  however, when i try to install 3.02 on my pi zero using the *same* "newconfig" file, it just won't connect.  my network sees the MAC address, but there is no IP given.  so i can't SSH to it, and i can't connect via web.  do you have any idea why this might be happening?  i'm using the EXACT same steps, just the 3.02 img instead of the 2.06 img.  very stumped

thank you all for your help, this is very encouraging

[Greg Erskine]

@greg, one thing you might be able to answer for me though:  i can install 2.06 on my pi zero no problem using the "newconfig" with my wifi settings.  on first boot, it connects to network, all is good!  however, when i try to install 3.02 on my pi zero using the *same* "newconfig" file, it just won't connect.  my network sees the MAC address, but there is no IP given.  so i can't SSH to it, and i can't connect via web.  do you have any idea why this might be happening?  i'm using the EXACT same steps, just the 3.02 img instead of the 2.06 img.  very stumped

hi jordache,

I have problems with one of my wifi adaptors since pCP3.00. Unfortunately, they upgrade their drivers and sometimes they are worst than the older ones. I had to change wifi adaptors. Maybe the same issue? This is the one I have problems with:

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:8176 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188CUS 802.11n WLAN Adapter

I got it going doing the following, but it still didn't work 100%.

Code: [Select]

Changed /etc/sysconfig/wifi-wpadrv from: "wext" to "nl80211,wext"
Added etc/sysconfig/wifi-wpadrv to .filetool.lst
#pcp bu
regards
Greg

[jordache]

hi greg, ah that's a very smart idea - that's probably what the problem is.  i'll try it later.

in the meantime, i have some insight into what might be happening with the modules not loading properly.  when i "ls -l" in the /tmp/tcloop folder, all of the permissions are:

drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root

EXCEPT for the "tft" folder, which shows up as:

drwxrwx---    3 root     999

could this be the problem?  if so, how do i fix it?  i'm trying to chmod, but it's obviously read-only at this point, so i'm not sure where to start.

(sorry if this is a very simple question - i'm still learning!)

thanks,
jamie

[Greg Erskine]

I think this is an issue for the extension maintainer to fix.

[jordache]

wow, so after more days of research and trial-and-error i finally got the screen working!  i rebuilt the tft.tcz module and changed permissions and now i have a full output on the screen!  this is incredible, the most progress i've had in weeks (and i've literally tried EVERYTHING else).  the only remaining problem is that now my screen ends with "starting jivelite...done" but doesn't load a skin.  i'm using the standard picoreplayer 2.06 installation, does anyone have any idea how to finish the final step???

(ps, hopefully in the future tft.tcz can be added to the repo.....would've saved me days of research)

[Dirk_H]

Hello at the moment I'm also trying to get PiCore running with a 3.5 LCD-TFT.
I hope I got pretty far, as the screen turned black after modprobing flexfb and fbtft_device (of cuase wit parameters).

can you give me some hints how / where to configure the output to go to it? and also where to enter the modprobe commands in order to be run at every startup? I got this working on raspbian, however picore has very different locations...

thanks in advance so much.

[jgrulich]

The default TFT output is fb1, therefor you've to redirect it, or copy from fb0 to fb1.
For Jivelite, use this:

Code: (bash) [Select]

sudo SDL_VIDEODRIVER=fbcon SDL_FBDEV=/dev/fb1 SDL_MOUSEDEV=/dev/input/touchscreen SDL_MOUSEDRV=TSLIB /home/pi/jivelite/bin/jivelite &


[Dirk_H]

ok the screen output works for me now with:

Code: [Select]

sudo SDL_VIDEODRIVER=fbcon SDL_FBDEV=/dev/fb1 /opt/jivelite/bin/jivelite &
However I have problems with the touchscreen (ads7846), but as this topic is named fbtft, I'll open a new thread.

[jordache]

hey jgrulich, thanks for the code suggestion.  i ran it via ssh and it looks like it's running properly, but it still doesn't switch the display.  fbtft.conf is pointing to fb1 though...obviously the screen is working, just not with jivelite.

when picoreplayer finishes loading it says "starting jivelite...done"...is there any command to see where jivelite is sending its output?  i know that the LCD screen is working fine, because it shows all of the bootcode for picoreplayer, but when it's time to run jivelite, the screen is just stuck on the code so the output must be going somewhere else.

i remember nowhinjing mentioning this exact problem on a forum about a year ago, but i don't know if he ever resolved it properly

one final thing to mention, when i run the jivelite installer via the picoreplayer web interface, it does mention that libts.tcz is missing.  i loaded the libts.tcz that i found on ralphy's github and it seems to load fine....although i'm wondering if that is somehow part of the problem?

if anyone has any thoughts, it would be much appreciated - i'm so close!!!

[jgrulich]

first you need to disable the Jivelite autostart in the piCorePlayer config.cfg to set

Code: (bash) [Select]

JIVELITE="no"

Than reboot and start the Jivelite with the

Code: (bash) [Select]

sudo SDL_VIDEODRIVER=fbcon SDL_FBDEV=/dev/fb1 /opt/jivelite/bin/jivelite &

To have the changes permanent, you need to modify the

Code: (bash) [Select]

/opt/jivelite/bin/jivelite.sh


[jordache]

thank you jgrulich!  that is exactly what i was trying to find.  so i disabled autostart and tried the command line instead.  now i have more information as to what is happening, and it seems like jivelite is getting stuck because of the resolution (error's suggesting that the wrong resolution is selected).  the screen i'm using is 480x320, which is too small for the joggler skin i believe.  i've read that the WQVGA Small Print (480x272) is what should be used for smaller screens.  is it possible to specify the WQVGA skin from the command line start of jivelite?

[jordache]

hi everyone,
i made some pretty great progress - i figured out how to recompile the jivelite.tcz to initiate the WQVGA skin as the default instead of joggler.  so now i finally have picoreplayer working on my 3.5 touchscreen!  big thanks to everyone who gave bits of knowledge here and there.

there is, however, one problem that remains:  the Y axis of the touchscreen works properly, but the X axis is inverted.  i've tried rotating the screen, calling the swapxy in every place i could find it, and even tried invertx.  but nothing seems to work.  there is also an issue where the scaling of the movement is off, so as i get close to the edge of the screen, the cursor jumps further and further in that direction.  however, i can't seem to get a calibration setup going.  if anyone has any final tips, even quick hints, about how to get those things corrected, i would be very grateful.

thanks again

[madmax6]

hello Jordache,

i've got the same screen, can you post me the jevelite.tcz and how you've managed to get jivelite to work on your screen?

thanks

Max