LCD touchscreen

[stephen fleming]

Is it possible to use the LCD touchscreen with the SOPINE board using Linux? The reason why I ask, is that I was looking at a recent thread:
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=1183&page=7
Jessica Spongekipper posted

Code:

/boot/uEnv.txt looking like:    

   console=ttyS0,115200n8
   selinux=permissive
   optargs=enforcing=0 cma=384M no_console_suspend
   kernel_filename=kernel
   initrd_filename=ramdisk.img
   hardware=sun50iw1p1

   # Uncomment to enable LCD screen
   fdt_filename_prefix=pine64/sun50i-a64-lcd-

When i opened the same file running the version of Ubuntu for the SOPINE, this is what I saw:

Code:

console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 no_console_suspend
kernel_filename=pine64/Image
initrd_filename=initrd.img
ethaddr=ba:88:8e:64:aa:78 fsck.repair=yes
pine64_model=pine64-so

The line to enable the LCD was not there. Is it located in another file?

[xalius]

I think the official Ubuntu image for the SOPine does not yet have LCD support since that needs additions to the devicetree file like for the regular Pine boards. That being said, some people use the Armbian SOPine images from their build system and that has LCD support like the regular Armbian image. You can also add the devicetree entries yourself to the regular SOPine dts file.

[maya.b]

I've been using the LCD with the SoPine using the Armbian Xenial 5.27 default (3.10.105) desktop build. This should also work with the 5.25 pre-packaged build available for download 

the configuration for boot and touchscreen kernel modules is in this post:
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=2896

One other thing I found useful was to add @all to the line in /etc/init.d/nodm
│# Should-Start:   console-screen kbd hal bluetooth @all
this causes X to basically load last, as it waits for "all" other things to load, and avoid the reboot cycle of annoyance at startup that can happen if everything is drawing boot-strength power at once. Despite the line starting with '#', it's not a comment.

[stephen fleming]

I tried using Armbian 5.25 as maya.b suggested, however the HDMI monitor and LDC touch screen remained blank when either one was used. The power LED on the baseboard and the LED on the Sopine board came on. I have not worked with device trees, but would like to work on it. A reference online called Device Trees For Dummies looks like it will help:
https://events.linuxfoundation.org/sites...ummies.pdf

I tried searching for the device tree source code for the Sopine, but could not find it.

[xalius]

If you are using Armbian, usually adding some config options is enough to enable LCD and touch support...

Code:

Also starting with 5.24 Pine64's own LCD with touchscreen support can simply be activated in /boot/armbianEnv.txt by setting pine64_lcd=on and adding gt9xxf_ts to /etc/modules followed by a reboot.

[stephen fleming]

If you are using Armbian, usually adding some config options is enough to enable LCD and touch support...

Code:

Also starting with 5.24 Pine64's own LCD with touchscreen support can simply be activated in /boot/armbianEnv.txt by setting pine64_lcd=on and adding gt9xxf_ts to /etc/modules followed by a reboot.

I downloaded Armbian 5.25 again for the Pine64 and wrote it to a uSD card using Etcher, and there was no video signal to my HDMI monitor after powering up the board. I looked at the notes on the Armbian download page for the Pine64 and the last note said "SoPine A64 requires different u-boot and Device Tree and for now is supported only as a build script target and nightly CLI images". It looks like there needs to be a separate version for the Sopine A64 which is not available now.

[xalius]

They do not have SOPine images for download right now, on my SOPine I use the one you get out of the build system, it takes about 20 minutes to build an image if you follow the process...

[stephen fleming]

I decided to wait for Armbian 5.27 to be officially released, and thanks to pfeerick manged to install Ubuntu Mate. So I now have the LCD screen working. Thanks for your help  
Now on to getting Bluetooth to work.

[p1x3l3d]

Hi! I'm going to attempt to revive this 2 year old thread.

Recently I bought a Pine64-LTS and the 7" LCD touchscreen from the shop. I'm now attempting to get the LCD to work with it using a Linux image, but so far: no luck.

What I've tried is really simple:

- boot the LTS with both builds by Armbian, taken from their Sopine page; the Debian Strecht image and the Ubuntu Bionic image, both of them version 5.83. They seem to run great on the device, SSH'ing works and upgrading all packages to their latest versions (# apt update && apt upgrade) works as well.
- adding 'pine64_lcd=on' to /boot/armbianEnv.txt and adding 'gt9xxf_ts' to /etc/modules, then rebooting.

The LTS still happily boots after this with images (yay!), but the LCD does not come up with an image and backlight isn't turning on either.
I'm using the 'official' 5V 3A power supply, which I assume to be sufficient to power the board and the LCD.

Has anybody else attempted this already and willing to share their configuration working with me? Thanks in advance!

[p1x3l3d]

So, to answer my own question: I couldn't get the LCD screen working on the latest Armbian image because the device tree isn't setup correctly on that (yet) and thus the LCD screen is not yet supported.

In case anyone else was trying to get the LCD screen to work with the PineA64-LTS as well, the solution for now is to use 'legacy' kernel 3.10.x, which can be taken from here (torrent link). The LTS runs smooth as butter on it, with a working LCD screen and wifi!