Olimex LCD Panel Support for A64

[Digitalman1983]

LCD support does not appear to be working in the latest builds (stable kernel 5.8.6, development kernel 5.9.7)

 

My understanding is that this has been an issue for a while with A64 boards, specifically the Pine64, but that it was working at one time.

 

Here's what I've tried so far:

 

-Followed instructions at https://docs.armbian.com/Hardware_Allwinner/  and added "setenv video-mode sunxi:480x272-24@60,monitor=lcd,hpd=1,edid=1" to boot.cmd and put "saveenv" at the end, re-compiled boot.scr

 

-Did a modprobe of panel-olimex-lcd-olinuxino

 

-Rebooted several times

 

-Ensured that LCD jumper was closed and verified LCD was working with Olimex builds.

 

Screen flickers at startup then stays white.

 

Any thoughts?

[Digitalman1983]

One additional comment,

 

I noticed according to the hardware notes in armbian docs that CONFIG_VIDEO_LCD_MODE must be enabled in kernel configuration.

 

I just checked my kernel configuration and that option does not exist.

[Gediz]

On 11/20/2020 at 7:05 PM, Digitalman1983 said:

One additional comment,

 

I noticed according to the hardware notes in armbian docs that CONFIG_VIDEO_LCD_MODE must be enabled in kernel configuration.

 

I just checked my kernel configuration and that option does not exist.

I do not know about the other issues but if i recall correctly CONFIG_VIDEO_LCD_MODE is actually an option in U-Boot, not kernel.

[Digitalman1983]

Thanks for that, Gediz,

 

In looking at the Olimex forum post https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php?topic=4463.0 regarding the A13, as well as http://linux-sunxi.org/LCD it would appear that the CONFIG_VIDEO_LCD_MODE is indeed part of the configuration for U-Boot, which requires U-boot to be custom built:

 

git clone git://git.denx.de/u-boot.git
cd u-boot/
git checkout v2015.04 -b tmp

https://developer.arm.com/-/media/Files/downloads/gnu-a/9.2-2019.12/binrel/gcc-arm-9.2-2019.12-x86_64-aarch64-none-linux-gnu.tar.xz

tar -xvf gcc-arm-9.2-2019.12-x86_64-aarch64-none-linux-gnu.tar.xz

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- a64-olinuxino_defconfig

make menuconfig

 

This allows the configuration of U-boot where the LCD can be properly enabled.

 

I'm working on the next step, which is properly linking the compiler to build the U-boot image, as well as adding a user patch to armbian build tools to allow use of the custom U-boot binary.  Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

[Gediz]

18 hours ago, Digitalman1983 said:

Thanks for that, Gediz,

 

In looking at the Olimex forum post https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php?topic=4463.0 regarding the A13, as well as http://linux-sunxi.org/LCD it would appear that the CONFIG_VIDEO_LCD_MODE is indeed part of the configuration for U-Boot, which requires U-boot to be custom built:

 

git clone git://git.denx.de/u-boot.git
cd u-boot/
git checkout v2015.04 -b tmp

https://developer.arm.com/-/media/Files/downloads/gnu-a/9.2-2019.12/binrel/gcc-arm-9.2-2019.12-x86_64-aarch64-none-linux-gnu.tar.xz

tar -xvf gcc-arm-9.2-2019.12-x86_64-aarch64-none-linux-gnu.tar.xz

make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- a64-olinuxino_defconfig

make menuconfig

 

This allows the configuration of U-boot where the LCD can be properly enabled.

 

I'm working on the next step, which is properly linking the compiler to build the U-boot image, as well as adding a user patch to armbian build tools to allow use of the custom U-boot binary.  Stay tuned.

 

You're welcome. If you don't mind, I'd recommend you to use a more recent U-Boot version if there isn't any special purpose to use v2015.04.

 

By the way, I had to spend a little bit amount of time to integrate a custom U-Boot and Linux to Armbian for my own use case. I thought that it'd help to see what/where should i add/modify back in then. Maybe this may help you a bit. By the way, do not mind FEX. It was for a really old kernel.

 

.
├── config
│   ├── boards
│   │   └── myboard-a13.csc
│   ├── fex
│   │   └── olinux-som-a13.fex
│   ├── kernel
│   │   └── linux-sun5i-default.config
│   └── sources
│       └── sun5i.conf
├── defconfig
│   └── u-boot
│       └── myboard-a13_defconfig
└── userpatches
    ├── config-myboard.conf
    └── u-boot
        └── u-boot-sunxi-legacy
            └── myboard-a13_defconfig.patch

 

Just after copying an overlay like this to your Armbian build directory, then ./compile.sh myboard

 

This configuration may be outdated to an extent. It's been some months.

[Digitalman1983]

Good catch....

 

"git checkout v2015.04 -b tmp" should be "git checkout v2020.10 -b tmp"