piCore 17 Beta Releases

[Juanito]

Testing beta2 on an RPi5 loading Xorg-3d, flwm, aterm, and wbar, the gui will not start without the following file:

Code: [Select]

cat /usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-vc4.conf
Section "OutputClass"
  Identifier "vc4"
  MatchDriver "vc4"
  Driver "modesetting"
  Option "PrimaryGPU" "true"
EndSection

I'm not sure if this is due to the changes with the frame buffer or a problem with the xorg-server startup script:

Code: [Select]

cat /usr/local/tce.installed/xorg-server
...
REVISION=$(awk -F: '/^Revision/ { print $2 }' /proc/cpuinfo | sed 's/ //g')
REVISION=${REVISION: -6}
case ${REVISION:2:1} in
    3|4) #BCM2711 and BCM2712 CPU"
        break
    ;;
    0|1|2) #BCM2835, BCM2836 and BCM2837 CPUS, all early VC4 Graphics
        cp /usr/local/share/xorg-server/files/99-vc4.conf /usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d
    ;;
    *) #Unknown CPU
        break
    ;;
esac


[Paul_123]

The change was on the older pies pi3 and less.  The pi5 should not have changed.....but its something they don't make known all the time.

But I concur, that my pi5 needs it too.

[Juanito]

I tested piCore64 17beta2 on an RPi4 - 99-vc4.conf is not needed for Xorg-3d to work.

[meo]

Hi!

I just had to try piCore64 beta 2 on my faithful Raspberry Pi 4. It showed when I was loading Xorg-3d that
graphics-6.18.37-piCore-v8 was missing. I downloaded it and now Xorg-3d works and loads in a very nice manner. So RPi 4 can also use piCore64 beta 2 with Xorg-3d, It seems that a few bugs still have to be squashed in this release though.

Kind greetings,
meo

[Juanito]

Which bugs are you speaking of?

[Rich]

Hi meo

... It showed when I was loading Xorg-3d that
graphics-6.18.37-piCore-v8 was missing. ...

These are the contents of  Xorg-3d.tcz.dep:

Code: [Select]

Xorg.tcz
graphics-KERNEL.tcz
libGLES.tcz
libEGL.tczSo when you installed  Xorg-3d , it would have installed  graphics-KERNEL.
Maybe you updated the kernel but not  graphics-KERNEL?

If you run:

Code: [Select]

ls -l /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/optional/graphics-*.tczdo you see multiple versions of graphics-KERNEL?

[Juanito]

After adding dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d, Xorg-3d works on an RPi3 running piCore 17beta2, so the startup script only needs modifying for an RPi5

[meo]

Hi Juanito!

I can tell you exactly what I have done to make Xorg3d work also on Raspberry Pi 4. I even have done a fresh install so that I easier can find out why things happen. What I do: from the first time starting the GUI I decide what I want to have ondemand and install it as so. After that comes a funny thing that I discovered when I couldn't install Xorg-3d from the prompt. I downloaded it to my personal repo on the micro SD card. I made another try and now something happened. Packets were installed until it reached the error "graphics/6.18.37-piCore-v8 is missing". I started the GUI and downloaded the missing package *I just downloaded it". Back to the prompt typing: tce-load -i Xorg-3d.tcz and then a lot of packages were scanned and I could see an OK at everyone finalizing with Xorg-3d.tcz OK and Xorg.tcz ) OK and a green prompt. I just gave the obvious command "startx", and it did. That is the way I have it setup as a fresh install. There is a but though I get the same problem with Pragtical as before. I was thinking, could that be fixed, the Pragmatic'al' problem, by making a change in .ashrc. If there is another solution I'm all ears since I can't make Pragmatic work on a Raspberry Pi 4.

Kind greetings,
meo

PS Sometimes the screen flickers when loading Xorg-3d but it stops and gives you a prompt to start the GUI DS

[Juanito]

Sometimes the screen flickers when loading Xorg-3d but it stops and gives you a prompt to start the GUI DS

Using piCore64 on an RPi4/5, when graphics-KERNEL is loaded the screen will blank and you will see a different console font on high resolution displays.

Using piCore on an RPi3, when graphics-KERNEL is loaded the screen will blank, but you will see the same console font. Some times the gui will not start (due to module load timing issues?) and you will need to manually startx.

[Rich]

Hi Juanito

... Some times the gui will not start (due to module load timing issues?) and you will need to manually startx.

I've had the same issue on a couple of x86/x86_64 systems and it was
a timing issue. In my case, it was  /dev/dri/card0  not showing up on time.

To fix it, I placed this at the beginning of ~/.xsession:

Code: [Select]

while [ $Timeout -lt 40 ]
do
[ -e /dev/dri/card0 ] && break
Timeout=$(($Timeout + 1))
sleep 0.25
doneIt tests for the existence of  /dev/dri/card0  every 0.25 seconds.
The loop terminates when /dev/dri/card0 is detected or after 10 seconds.

When the GUI fails to start, run this:

Code: [Select]

grep '(EE)' /var/log/Xorg.0.logOne of those error messages should tell you what's not showing up on time.

[Paul_123]

Should we fix that in .xsession.  If one is using Xorg-3d the should be some sort of gpu loading.....or is it too different between systems

[Rich]

Hi Paul_123
Assuming it's always the same item causing the issue, /dev/dri/card0
for example, then this should work:

Code: [Select]

if tce-status -i | grep -qE "Xorg.*3d"
then
while [ $Timeout -lt 40 ]
do
[ -e /dev/dri/card0 ] && break
Timeout=$(($Timeout + 1))
sleep 0.25
done
fiThat should only execute if Xorg 3d is loaded.

[Paul_123]

wayland seems to run okay on the pi5.

Whats the thought for this point in 2026?   Should we really be moving to wayland wl_roots sway xwayland configuration?   And drop xorg from default dependancies?

[Juanito]

We could think about moving to labwc, which with labwc-config gives a tc-like dynamic menu.

A move to wayland perhaps makes more sense if we drop x11 - this would eliminate many extensions and fltk, gtk3 and gtk4 apps would all work.

[meo]

Hello!

I'm very impressed how piCore64 v17beta2 works on my Raspberry Pi 4. No problems at all and I have all the programs I need handy and it's a breeze to load the Xorg-3d.tcz.  As I mentioned before I only download Xorg-3d.tcz and graphics-6.18.37-piCore-v8.tcz. If I don't have them downloaded I get an error message saying that they are missing. So the only thing I have to do to be able to use for example pragtical is to, from the prompt, issue the command tce-load -i Xorg-3d.tcz followed by startx at the prompt. It loads and everything works flawlessly. I have installed my database and it works perfect also. So now I have started on my BHP project in Python on the RPi4 because it's more convenient. So a big thanks to all that have worked on this release! Now I don't get surprises on any kind, it just works.

Kind greetings,
meo

PS The only thing I have to worry about is the size of the backup. It's already about 74.5MB DS