{"id":523,"date":"2014-04-08T01:32:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T01:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.p-brane.com\/nm\/?p=523"},"modified":"2014-04-08T01:34:15","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T01:34:15","slug":"raspberry-pi-touch-screen-display-lights-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.p-brane.com\/nm\/raspberry-pi-touch-screen-display-lights-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Raspberry Pi touch screen display lights up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Installing the kernel and drivers to get the Adafruit 2.8 inch touch screen operation was more involved than I expected, but it is working. It just need some tweaking to set it up so that the GUI can be used more easily. The RPi seems to be set up for a 1080×760 monitor but the touch screen is only 320 by 240. At least one configuration file will likely need updating to make the background and applications windows fit better.<\/p>\n

I used the Occidentalis v0.2<\/a> kernel build as described in the Adafruit instructions for the PiTFT touch screen<\/a>. The instruction have you build a new kernel so it takes a while to get it running. After building the new kernel, the Wolfram language package needs to be installed as the Wolfram language only comes pre-installed in the Rasbian distribution in the NOOBS loader. This went smoothly but I’ve had one of my CDFs crash Mathematic so some troubleshooting is still required.<\/p>\n

The RPi distribution via NOOBS seemed to be faster and more responsive than this version when it was first installed. The Ethernet adapter was not set up to run automatically, and the wireless interface was not configured to connect to hidden station IDs. Changes to the Interfaces configuration file enabled the Ethernet port. Later updates to this file, enabled a wireless connection too. After upgrading the packages, it seems to be much more responsive.\u00a0 The photos below show the display just after boot into x-windows and with the Fermi-Distribution function notebook running in Mathematica.<\/p>\n

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Raspberry Pi with an Adafruit PiTFT 2.8 in touch screen running in x-windows mode<\/div>\n
Raspberry Pi with an Adafruit PiTFT 2.8 in touch screen running in x-windows mode.<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Raspberry Pi with an Adafruit PiTFT 2.8 in touch screen running in x-windows mode showing a Mathematica notebook running<\/div>\n
Raspberry Pi with an Adafruit PiTFT 2.8 in touch screen running in x-windows mode showing a Mathematica notebook running.<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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It’s easier for me to use and remember operations in a GUI like Windows XP rather then a command string operation system like Linux so I keep a cheat sheet of command. These commands were used repeatedly for this activity and are listed below.<\/p>\n

Updating the Raspbian<\/b><\/p>\n

sudo apt-get update\r\nsudo apt-get upgrade<\/pre>\n
Firmware updates<\/b>
\nUpdating the firmware on the RPi requires the rpi-update tool<\/a>. The tool is on github along with the direction for installing it.<\/p>\n
sudo apt-get install git-core\r\nsudo wget https:\/\/raw.github.com\/Hexxeh\/rpi-update\/master\/rpi-update -O \/usr\/bin\/rpi-update && sudo chmod +x \/usr\/bin\/rpi-update\r\nsudo rpi-update<\/pre>\n
The rpi-update will rebuild a new kernel. It might take a little while. When it completes, then reboot the RPi.<\/p>\n
Shutdown and reboot<\/b>
\nFrom an x-windows session or command line, use<\/p>\n
sudo shutdown \u2013h now (to shutdown and halt. Restart by cycling the power to the RPi)\r\n or\r\nsudo shutdown \u2013r now (to reboot the RPi).<\/pre>\n
Device driver location<\/b>
\nIf the build worked correctly, then \/dev should contain two new SPI devices<\/p>\n