robertoj

Does anybody know if this will work with Allwinner H618?

Forumtrekker: I am 99% sure that if you see the LCD working OK once, with kungfupancake or any other a txt/bin file, for just console text, it will work for any graphics. There's an issue with plymouth: it modifies the initrd in a way that it loses track of the bin file, and the kernel driver fails to load. See: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/53568-how-to-add-a-specific-single-file-in-the-initrdimg-ideally-automatically-with-update-initramfs/#comment-221767 I am running my SPI at 40MHz fine with 20cm wires. I don't have time to see your DTS file, but are you using the same CS pin as I do? I have noticed there's a default "chip select" pin, which makes everything work better. If you are using panel-mipi-dbi driver, don't use any additional DTS for the LCD, not even additional SPI DTS, and armbianEnv.txt that refer to the LCD. According to the notro wiki, the ili9486 and ili9488 will only work with RGB888 mode (because we use SPI). There's the "format" parameter line just for that, in my DTS. Can you send a good photo of your LCD front and back? My method is for a Red PCB LCD. I don't know the brand, but it is not Waveshare, Creality or any known company. Sorry, saying "Chinese LCD" is like saying "wet water": redundant and not specific. pami: the english in your post is fine, but you can separate ideas and separate processes in paragraphs, to let me focus in one problem at a time Many LCD guides, due to being so old, use the fbcopy driver, or another "classic framebuffer" driver. I could make my ili9341 work with it, but since I learned to use the panel-mipi-dbi I only started using that. It get's you more fluid animations and probably Linux will prefer it in the future. If one dtbo file and a python script makes your LCD work fine, share that script and DTBO (best if you can decompile the DTBO into DTS), in this thread, as attached files. Send more photos of your LCD. AI suggestions will only work if the solution is well documented somewhere in the internet, and the AI has found it. AI will re-word the answer and take credit for it.

I see that this configuration is a kernel build feature, not an armbian-developed function: https://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/INITRAMFS_SOURCE.html https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/479415/how-does-linux-know-where-the-rootfs-is So, you can post your question in many more linux discussion places. I hope you get the answer (and share here). Have you ever got this INITRAMFS_SOURCE configuration work, outside of Armbian... for example building the kernel from source by itself?

Try a different microSD card, and always start with a serial-USB connection to your laptop. After first boot, run htop and if you see the CPU high usage, wait until it is done. Then reboot the orange pi.

I don't know about customizing the initrd during the armbian build process. But this is the way to customize it AFTER you get armbian running in your board https://forum.armbian.com/topic/53568-how-to-add-a-specific-single-file-in-the-initrdimg-ideally-automatically-with-update-initramfs/#comment-221767 I know it is not YOUR OWN INITRD, but maybe you can work with it. Large language models are more useful when the answer exists somewhere in a popular website. If no human has written about it, ChatGPT or Gemini will not give you the answer. Have you tried replacing the uImage file in the /boot folder, with your own initrd, converted to uinitrd?

The ffmpeg conversation in https://code.ffmpeg.org/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/pulls/20847 suddenly stopped 2 weeks ago. Does it seem like there's a big obstacle suddenly, or just a well deserved engineer vacation going on?

Thank you for testing my instructions I was on vacation, and I didn't remember to check this until now Which LCD are you using? Which kernel driver are you using for it? All the questions in your post depend on the LCD model and the driver you used. (I am using panel-mipi-dbi, which I know that it has lost its ability to display X11 graphics since a few months ago) Can you 100% say that you don't have X11? You don't need to use the same kernel version I use. The newer version you have is preferable 🆗 I am glad you can use the Trixie labwc. Personally, I am using Bookworm in the meantime, since its the only way I know to get H264 hardware acceleration. With Trixie's labwc, do you ever get desktop crashes when you log out?

mpv has the correct code to use the ffmpeg for cedrus hardware acceleration AND the correct code to display it on screen with minimal CPU usage. If you want gstreamer as a video pipeline, can you try using ffmpeg (the v4l2request version) and gstreamer together?

If you use your own boardconfig file, or edit another boardconfig file, you may be missing some configs or device tree overlay, and make problems in configuring SPI and GPIO pins. I always use boardconfig that's included in armbian-build, specifically for Orange Pi Zero 3, by following the text menu, and not editing any file.

All this time, I thought you were using a custom H618 board hardware. Now it is clear to me, that you have an Orange Pi Zero 3, In armbian build, make sure you don't add any configuration files. Just do "./compile.sh" and when you get the menu for board selection, press the button "Unsupported/CSC" (or something like that). The text menu will turn red. Press OK and you will see a list of more Linux boards. Press "P" to quickly scroll down, then "UP" to find Orange Pi Zero 3. Then choose the option for Linux edge, and choose that you want to configure linux.

Can you get an orange pi zero 3? As a hardware beginner, you need a very stable, well known linux board.

Alright Did you ever make this LCD work with your H618 motherboard, with another kernel driver?

Try the X11 windowing manager or the Wayland compositor without lightdm (or another display manager).

Posting this interesting event, in case someone can see why it worked: Banana Pi M4 zero (H618) gained HDMI audio when upgrading to Linux 6.12.30 https://forum.armbian.com/topic/50773-bpi-m4-zero-hdmi-audio/ But in this thread, there's a report that upgrading to 6.16.8 (from 6.15.4) lost HDMI audio

Can you clarify that you made a custom H618 board ?? (not exactly Orange Pi Zero 3?). If I remember correctly, you had previous success with an ili9341 and the same linux board? You need to compare the DTS that worked for you (with ilitek, ili9341, right?) and the new DTS you are trying to modify (with panel-mpi-dbi, for ili9488). Make sure you haven't changed the GPIO in the DTS, and the connections in the LCD and your Linux board. If the ili9341 was working for you with the H616 armbian configuration, changing to H618 might need changes in the LCD DTS from that change.... to make those SPI pins to be addressed correctly. That previous H616 armbian configuration... what Linux board was it meant for? Change back to the configuration that made your board work with the ili9341.

Now that you can replicate the crash anytime. Right after it crashes: $ dmesg $ journalctl -u lighdtm Also, try another application that will use the LCD continuously, without starting X11: $ mplayer -vo fbdev2:/dev/fb0 videofile.mp4 (use a 320x240 approx video, so it will be smooth without hardware acceleration) If it works, then maybe X11 is the problem, not the LCD driver. I wish more people switched to 100% Wayland in their HDMI monitors and LCDs. I have a method. If you want it too: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/55882-critique-or-improve-my-method-to-get-a-lightweight-labwc-desktop/#comment-227469

Check out the learning experience in this thread: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/27457-connecting-banana-pi-m2-zero-with-ili9341-display-over-spi-on-latest-armbian-image/#comment-162359 In an ssh session, do this: $ tail -f /var/log/Xorg.0.log And see what happens when the X11 server crashes

I am glad you made the LCD work with a DRM driver Three clarifications: the driver panel-mipi-dbi is provided in the OS image you write in the microSD. The DTS is something you get from this thread, and install it with armbian-add-overlay. Kungfupancake provides a txt or a bin file that defines the configuration sent to the LCD, when the kernel driver starts, and instructions on how to install it. The panel-mipi-dbi driver (the recent versions I tried) does not support X11, and you need 100% Wayland, and 0% X11 See my thread to install rpi-greeter (one of the 2 login managers that work with Wayland), and Labwc:

Yes, One/some/all of those kernel configs may be needed for analog audio. Start with the activating configs that correlate with the missing kernel modules * snd_soc_sunxi_machine * snd_soc_sunxi_ahub * snd_soc_sunxi_ahub_dam If it still doesn't work, activate all the 2 other linux kernel configs: internalcodec and aaudio

That's good news You are using lightdm with the default greeter GUI, right? That means that your LCD driver can support X11. Are you still using adafruit,yx240qv29? Maybe the lightdm service is getting confused about which display to use. What do you get with: $ ls /dev/fb* ? Make sure that you don't connect an HDMI LCD at the same time. Which desktop(s) do you use? XFCE and Gnome?

If you have X11 installed, then boot with only the LCD and try: sudo systemctl stop lightdm (the greeter, which requires X11) sudo startx Show me what errors you see If you have Trixie, boot with only the LCD and: sudo apt install labwc labwc (as a regular user) Large language models are just google on steroids. They can only give good answers, if hundreds of people have typed and published solution similar to your problem.

Jeffrey, Is your DTS using this in the "compatible" line: adafruit,yx240qv29 ? Are you trying to use an X11 or Wayland greeter and desktop? (I can't remember what commands to use to check that right now). I didn't know about X11 problems with adafruit,yx240qv29 (only with the other driver panel-mipi-dbi) There's no available image to download with all the required parts.

Yes, that is the correct sequence of actions: 1. Build armbian minimal with panel-mipi-dbi kernel module 2. Use DTS so that the kernel links the GPIO, SPI to the panel-mipi-dbi kernel module 3. Use the bin file (originally provided by Kungfu pancake) <-mandatory, not optional 4. If you see console text successfully in the LCD during boot, you have successfully installed your LCD 5. Tell us here, for the next step in GUI installation The "greeter" is the graphical login screen. Labwc is the wayland-based compositor and window manager (I think).

Rebuilding all the image doesn't represent much more time than the time to recompile the kernel. I can't advise to download the linux source to the armbian SBC, because you would also need the armbian patches. One thing I use for debugging of DTS (and maybe linux kernel modules) taking control of GPIO is: sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/gpio

Yes. Try the latest kernel. The latest is always the one with the most corrections (unless someone discovers an error). How do you select a H616 vs H618 kernel? I always select Unsupported Board > Orange Pi Zero 3