Linux Support

[MarkHaysHarris777]

BTW: When I looked into the first A64 SDK/BSP back in last Dec for obvious reasons display was set to LCD as default. I put the example fex file online back then: http://pastebin.com/26Q5tbXU (starting at line 408).

This SDK/BSP allowed defining stuff in the traditional way (fex file) and also as device tree (kernel 3.10). When longsleep started to work with BSP kernel coming from 'real' kernel sources he got rid off all the fex stuff immediately and defined everything solely in .dts -- since no LCD was available back then and since 'it just worked' he defined display settings to use HDMI. And since none of the linux-sunxi devs uses Pine64 with display connected (only to test out stuff asked by users here from time to time) nothing has changed over time. That's the whole story.

That Allwinner's BSP kernel can deal with LCD is a must since A64 is made for tablets. And today it's not a Android vs. Linux thing it was just ignorance (for different reasons) preventing the adoption of LCD settings from an Android image to Linux OS images.

It will become an Android vs. Linux thing as soon as we talk about Mainline u-boot/kernel since there display initialisation happens differently (or not at all ATM). But as long as all Linux images providing display output are based on Allwinner's BSP kernel (regardless whether patched up to 3.10.102 or not) using an LCD is just defining it in a configuration file (dual display config possible in different modes as known since years from other Allwinner implementations).

Thanks for the background. Is there a detailed step by step to getting the LCD working on Ubuntu? That would be really helpful.

No there is not;  which is the prime problem with so much surrounding the Allwinner SoC; no documentation. 

Lennyraposo estimated two weeks to get the LCD working with gnu+linux on the PineA64;  if its a dts thing he should have been able to say two hours-- and that would have been more than enough time. The problem is that noone yet knows the configuration ( except perhaps Allwinner ).