ANNOUNCE: piCorePlayer 7.0.0

[chill]

I've bought a 3.5" capacitive touchscreen (this one). I was attracted to this particular screen because it was relatively cheap (I paid £27, although it now seems to be unavailable), and it has a built-in RTC, which may prove useful for a planned install where network time won't always be available.

It has drivers for kernel 5.4.83, so I'm trying to get it working under pCP7.0.1. The problem I have is that the install script that Inno-maker have supplied assumes a standard linux distribution, where kernel modules are in conventional storage, and I'm struggling to replicate what the script does because the kernel modules in pCP are all stored in modules-5.4.83-pcpCore-v8.gz on the boot partition.

The install script uses 'sudo install -p -m 664' to attempt to install the following files:

1) lcd35_spi.dtbo into /boot/overlays
2) ft6236.ko into /lib/modules/5.4.83-pcpCore-v8/kernel/drivers/input/touchscreen
3) ili9486-i2c into /lib/modules/5.4.83-pcpCore-v8/kernel/drivers/input/touchscreen
4) fbtft.ko into /lib/modules/5.4.83-pcpCore-v8/kernel/drivers/staging/fbtft
5) fb_ili9486.ko into /lib/modules/5.4.83-pcpCore-v8/kernel/drivers/staging/fbtft

I can do (1) by manually copying lcd35_spi.dtbo into the overlays folder on the boot partition. I'm not sure about the difference between 'sudo install' and just copying the file, but this seems to work, since I can see output on the screen during boot (albeit rather garbled - see below).

(4) and (5) already seem to be present at the correct points in the path.

So that leaves (2) and (3). How can I accomplish the same result under pCP7?

If I need to add those files to modules-5.4.83-pcpCore-v8.gz, how do I do that? I've struggled with tar and gzip but haven't managed to make a new version of that file that works.

Is there an alternative procedure for installing 'user' kernel modules?

The screen almost works. The display is visible, and Jivelite works - I can even use the touch function to navigate (just about). But as you can see the image is repeating, as though it's not scanning correctly for the 480x320 resolution. I don't know if this is because of the two .ko files that I haven't been able to install, or some other reason, so any advice will be welcomed.




EDIT: Evidently 'install' just does a few things in one command - nothing that can't be accomplished manually.

install
BusyBox v1.31.1 (2020-12-18 22:25:41 EST) multi-call binary.

Usage: install [-cdDsp] [-o USER] [-g GRP] [-m MODE] [-t DIR] [SOURCE]... DEST

Copy files and set attributes

	-c	Just copy (default)
	-d	Create directories
	-D	Create leading target directories
	-s	Strip symbol table
	-p	Preserve date
	-o USER	Set ownership
	-g GRP	Set group ownership
	-m MODE	Set permissions
	-t DIR	Install to DIR

[paul-]

The display modules are already in graphics-5.4.83-pcpCore-v8. Loading jivelite will load these modules. So if they are using patched versions, you will need to remove these the graphics modules from the dependency list..

-----

Do you really need them in the initrd? You can just make an extension with the two files if you want.

But to answer your question, the initrd is a gzipped cpio archive.

Create you directory structure in a temp directory. i.e. /tmp/myinitrd/lib/modules/.........

Then change to /tmp/myinitrd

find | sudo cpio -o -H newc > gzip -9 myinitrd.gz

Then you can copy your file to the boot drive. Then you can just add you initrd. It's just a comma delimited list of initrd's to load. Keep the name small, as the list can only be 80 characters long.

- or -

Just for you knowledge, you can concatenate initrd.

cat modules-5.4.83-pcpCore-v8.gz myinitrd.gz > new_modules-5.4.83-pcpCore-v8.gz

Then just rename the files.

[chill]

Thanks Paul - that's very helpful.

Do you really need them in the initrd?

I assumed they were needed at boot, but that's because I'm a bit out of my depth here! I didn't think of using a separate extension - would those files be available at the right time?

Thanks for the pointer about the files already being available. I assume you were referring only to (4) and (5), fbtft.ko and fb_ili9486.ko. I guess I need to check whether the Inno versions are the same, and figure out how to replace them if they're not.

[paul-]

They would be needed at boot to see boot screens. But screens like the pirate audio are in extensions, they just come up a bit later in the boot process.

[jiveluc]

Hello,

I recently installed piCorePlayer LMS and it works fine. Thanks.
I would like to Mount Remote Network Share (listen the music stored on my NAS Synology with pCP LMS) but it's impossible to edit something : all the fields, checkboxes and buttons are disabled (see screenshot)



I don't understand why.

The install is the following :
piCorePlayer | piCorePlayer v7.0.0 | www v00011 | linux 5.4.83-pcpCore | piCore v12.0pCP | Squeezelite v1.9.8-1287-pCP

Where should I look ?

Thanks

[carsten_h]

I don't understand why.

Look at the last line of your screenshot: "Mounting network drives requires extra file system support"!

A little bit above on the page you can find the part: "Install and Enable additional File Systems". There you have to press the first button. That's all. :-)

[jiveluc]

Look at the last line of your screenshot: "Mounting network drives requires extra file system support"!

A little bit above on the page you can find the part: "Install and Enable additional File Systems". There you have to press the first button. That's all. :-)

Hi,
Thank you for your help.
So I installed the extra filesystems (even though the NAS is in ext4 and root partition of pCP too).
And now I can edit the fields ! (It was necessary to reboot pCP before).
Thanks again !

[carsten_h]

even though the NAS is in ext4 and root partition of pCP too

That is an often heard misunderstanding of a NAS. It is totally uninteresting which filesystem the NAS uses internally. It can be anything.
Externally the NAS normally uses SMB which is a defined protocol for giving file information (folders, files size etc.) and files. There is no real filesystem!

Great that it works now!

[ashceryth]

Also tried with a Digi+ (non Pro) now. Same results...

EDIT: My IQaudio DigiAMP+ also on RPi 3B+ with same WiFi adapter works fine with 192kHz.

EDIT2: With the Digi+ Pro I seem to have issues with 96kHz (set the Qobuz plugin to 24bit/96kHz) too as it stutters from time to time. For comparison, I connected the FiiO via USB and it plays even 24/192 flawlessly.

In case anyone having the same issue: The problems were caused by my USB WiFi adapter. Switching to Pi integrated WiFi solved the issue completely!

[benh]

I'm still trying to sort out the problems I am having with Jivelite on piCorePlayer 7.0.1 on a Pi with a touchscreen and am digging deeper. I found an issue unrelated to that that I thought might be useful to note here.

I suspect that the "setup" utility you can run for piCorePlayer from the command line is not fully functional, and indeed, there's a warning that it may not be up to date that I saw, so this is less a complaint than a report.

I have a dedicated "media" SSID that is a hidden SSID with a WPA PSK.

Using the "setup" utility with a keyboard plugged in, I set the SSID and PSK and rebooted. I was unable to connect to my media wireless network.

Using the Web GUI to configure wireless (via a wired connection), I got it to connect, and copied the resulting wpa_supplicant.conf file off.

I then started completely from scratch and burned a new image to the SD card, and copied that wpa_supplicant.conf file to the SD card as documented.

That worked. There are configuration elements in the supplicant as configured by the Web GUI that aren't configured by "setup", but I haven't tested to see which elements are critical.