fbtft

[nowhinjing]

Hi, all,

I am quite happy to share my version on tft.tcz, which you can get from here http://www.pughx2.com/assets/px2/files/tft.tcz. It uses modules from the 4.1.13 kernel and should thus work for piCore7rc1 and rc2.

Since I used a 'quick qnd dirty' method to produce it, I will not be sending it to Bella. If I get time I might tidy it up into a state where it can be submitted, assuming that any one else is interested.

This is what I did.

1.   Create a working environment by installing the latest linux version into a virtual environment under windows.
2.   Download 4.1.13-piCore_v7+_modules.tar.xz from http://tinycorelinux.net/7.x/armv7/releases/RPi2/src/kernel/ and unpack it into tmp/core
3.   Rename the original tft.tcz to tft-orig.tcz and copy it to tmp/tft
4.   unsquash tft-orig.tft, this will give you a folder in tmp/tft called squashfs-root
5.   Copy all matching .ko entries from tmp/core to the same directory structure in tmp/tft/squashfs-root, deleting the matching .ko.gz entries - I used xfe for this
6.   In tmp/tft/squashfs-root, run 'find . -name *.ko | xargs gzip' to zip the .ko files to .ko.gz
7.   in tmp/tft squash squashfs-root to tft.tcz

et voila ! Job done.

[jgrulich]

Hi Béla,

Hence the tft displays are used more and more often, I'd like to kindly ask you to make the tft.tcz, or similar name, kernel package for the TFT touch displays as a regular part of the repo which will be updated with each kernel update.

[bmarkus]

Hi Béla,

Hence the tft displays are used more and more often, I'd like to kindly ask you to make the tft.tcz, or similar name, kernel package for the TFT touch displays as a regular part of the repo which will be updated with each kernel update.

Which kernel modules required?

[jgrulich]

I've used driver files related to the fbtft and the touch input drivers. Hope my original http://grulich.eu/files/tft.tcz will help.

[pc1246]

Hello @ all
I am new here! I finally do not get the point where I get my tft to show something! It is not the same you guys are using, but this is not my problem! All the settings in config and cmdline do not take any effect! And i think it is a problem with the tft not loading in kernel!?
Could someone give me a hint please! I am using 4.1.13 on a B Pi!
Thanks in advance
Christoph

[jgrulich]

Hi pc1246,

the tft.tcz are only the kernel modules, but they need to be somehow loaded. What overlay are you using?
May be that the attached file may help.

[jordache]

hello,
i'm sorry to dig up an old topic, but i've come SO close to getting my 3.5 tft touchscreen working in picoreplayer and yet i'm coming up short.  i think my main issue is that i cannot seem to find a working link to a tft.tcz file anywhere.  everything that i've read (i have spent days, so please don't say i haven't read x thread) has suggested that i need to load tft.tcz.  at the moment, i've installed the waveshare drivers on my picoreplayer install and enabled the jivelite settings.  i'm using a pi zero, so the best i've been able to install is picoreplayer 2.06.  the 3 version doesn't seem to work.  if anyone has any insight it would be much appreciated.  so far i have picoreplayer 2.06 working just fine, the 3.5 display i have outputs just a white screen with a black border around it....so i think i'm close but not QUITE there.

i have literally tried every single possible solution available on the web, but nothing has quite worked for my setup....and unfortunately all of the links that have been referenced are now dead.  any help would be very much appreciated.  thank you!

[nowhinjing]

@jordache

The original version of tft.tcz, can still be got from here http://www.pughx2.com/assets/px2/files/tft.tcz; there is also a modified later version ... tft1.tcz, both use modules from the 4.1.13 kernel and should thus work for piCore7rc1 and rc2.

good luck !

[jordache]

@nowhinjing

thanks so much!  the link you've provided downloads properly....i'm completely stumped as to why i wasn't able to download before....

anyways, will give it another shot now that i (hopefully) have the right tools.  thank you

[jordache]

hey @nowhinjing, if you have a moment perhaps you can give me a little bit more of a nudge in the right direction.

i've tried both of the tcz files you mentioned (thanks again!) but i'm still having problems.

i've run the install script included in the TFT archive that @jgrulich had provided (either in this thread or a similar one), which basically seems to copy over the waveshare 35 overlay, add the stuff to config and cmdline, and create the x11 as well as a filetool.lst file (which appears empty??).

so i basically am not any closer than i was before.  one thing i noticed though (trying something from another thread) was that lsmod shows that flexb is not running.  im on a pi0 with picoreplayer 2.06, so it's loading the 4.1.20 picore i believe.  do you have any insight into what is happening?  i'm still trying to wrap my head around how this whole thing works!

thanks

[jgrulich]

Guess that the issue will be in the wrong kernel modules. Below mentioned link is for 4.1.13 kernel and you mentioned that you need 4.1.20 ones. Than use the 7-steps tutorial, mentioned earlier, to rebuild them for the actual kernel needed.

BTW, the .filetool.lst is not empty, may be that you've not run the setup script with the sudo to be a root.

Regards,

Jan

[jordache]

hey jan, thanks a lot for the tips.

i have rebuilt the tft.tcz as per your instructions using the 4.1.20 kernel

i have run your setup script as root and verified that all additions have been made, also filelist is updated properly

i've backed up to make sure that everything is saved

when i reboot i still get a white screen.  i can't find tft.tcz in the /tmp/tcloop folder (you mentioned before the /tmp/loop folder which doesn't seem to exist).  also when i try to call the module manually with modprobe it says that flexfb does not exist.

it think i am very close, any other thoughts?

thanks,
jamie

[Greg Erskine]

Do you need to add tft.tcz to /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/onboot.lst ?

[jordache]

hey greg,
yup, tft.tcz is in onboot.lst

i erased the SD card and tried everything from scratch again.  tft is now loading in the "tcloop" folder, but the LCD screen is still just white.  also when i look at lsmod, flexfb is not showing up and when i try to modprobe it says that it is not found in modules.

what am i missing?

is the fact that i'm starting with the picoreplayer image a problem?  in other words, is it too "stripped-down" a version of tinycore?

thanks,
jamie

[Greg Erskine]

piCorePlayer uses piCore with a few different extensions. So piCorePlayer is not using a stripped down version of piCore.

I did not do any of the work on getting the "official" screen working on piCorePlayer so I am not much help.

We decided to only support the "official" screen because there are so many different screens available and we wanted the screen to also be compatible with jivelite resolutions. We released that the Raspberry Pi Foundation's offering would instantly be the most popular and best supported. I can understand the need for a smaller, cheaper solution but at the moment we don't have any plans.

regards
Greg