[Flavien_94]

Hi,

I have a RaspberryPi model 3, with a small LCD screen attached. I'd like to use it for streaming music via upnp for now. And of course with Kodi.

The LCD screen is 320x480. I have installed raspbian and kodi.

Here are a few commands I ran :
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Raspbian
Description:    Raspbian GNU/Linux 9.1 (stretch)
Release:        9.1
Codename:       stretch
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 4.9.59-v7+ #1047 SMP Sun Oct 29 12:19:23 GMT 2017 armv7l GNU/Linux
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ dpkg -l | grep kodi
ii  kodi                                  2:17.5-1~stretch                     all          Kodi Media Center (arch-independent data package)
ii  kodi-bin                              2:17.5-1~stretch                     armhf        Kodi Media Center (binary data package)
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ DISPLAY=:0 xrandr
xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 480 x 320, current 480 x 320, maximum 480 x 320
default connected 480x320+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   480x320        0.00*

Now, I start kodi using the gui. No output on the screen. Screen freezes. The kodi process runs though :
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ps -ef | grep kodi
pi        1022   666  0 22:42 ?        00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/kodi
pi        1044  1022 26 22:42 ?        00:00:08 /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/kodi/kodi_v7.bin --lircdev /var/run/lirc/lircd

I pasted the content of temp/kodi.log here : https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/D76Z8v8nVg/

Note that if I plug my tv to the hdmi plug of the Raspberry, I can see Kodi's output.
How can I force kodi to sent output to the LCD screen instead of hdmi ?

Thanks for your help !

[dandnsmith]

I'm feeling ignorant of things I should know:
How is the LCD screen connected to the Pi?
Have you modified /bin/config.txt to affect the display?
Do you have the module tvservice installed - if so what is the output from tvservice -s when you try to use the LCD screen?

[Flavien_94]

Hi,

The screen is the same size of the Pi board and connects directy on the GPIO.
I did install the driver from http://www.raspberrypiwiki.com/index.php...LCD_driver. That script did modify /bin/config.txt, here are the non commented-out lines :

hdmi_force_hotplug=1
dtparam=i2c_arm=on
dtparam=spi=on
enable_uart=1
dtparam=audio=on
dtoverlay=waveshare35a:rotate=270
gpu_mem=256

The tvservice looks installed :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ tvservice -s
state 0x12000a [HDMI DMT (4) RGB full 4:3], 640x480 @ 60.00Hz, progressive

I just tried to turn it off :

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ tvservice -o
Powering off HDMI
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ tvservice -s
state 0x120002 [TV is off]

I then went to the raspbian menu on the graphical display, choose Sound & Video, then Kodi, and I got a different behavior : Kodi aborted. The log ends with :

21:49:11.909 T:1910693888   DEBUG: EGL set resolution 1280x720 -> 1280x720 @ 0.00 fps (0,0) flags:0 aspect:1.00
21:49:11.909 T:1910693888   ERROR: EGL error in CreateSurface: 300b
21:49:11.909 T:1910693888  NOTICE: CreateWindow: Could not create a surface. Trying with a fresh Native Window.
21:49:11.909 T:1910693888   ERROR: EGL error in CreateSurface: 300b
21:49:11.910 T:1910693888   ERROR: CreateWindow: Could not create surface
21:49:11.910 T:1910693888   ERROR: CreateNewWindow: Could not create new window
21:49:11.910 T:1910693888   FATAL: CApplication::Create: Unable to create window

Full log : https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/jFkdTbb5s8/

Thank you,
Flavien.

[dandnsmith]

I'm sorry I cannot help - but might there be an indirect hint in this thread which is rather old?

[popcornmix]

I'm sorry I cannot help - but might there be an indirect hint in this thread which is rather old?

 I don't think so. I believe OP's display is connected by SPI which isn't driven by firmware (which only handles HDMI, composite, DSI and DPI displays) and so isn't supported by kodi.
There is a hack to use fbcp to mirror the primary (HDMI) display onto the secondary (SPI) display, which may be worth a try.
But I suspect that SPI won't support a very fast update rate (i.e. low framerate), so I'm not sure how well this can work.

[dandnsmith]

Perhaps, with the prime stated use as music streamer, this will be sufficient.
We can but hope!

[Flavien_94]

Indeed, I wanted to have a bit more info before replying, but following the thread you pointed me to (thanks !), I got fbcp compiled and installed yesterday :

$ apt-get install cmake
$ git clone https://github.com/tasanakorn/rpi-fbcp
$ cd rpi-fbcp
$ cmake .
$ make
$ ./fbcp &

Once it's running, I can launch Kodi, and hourah ! I get to see Kodi's interface on the small screen. #thumbsup
I do not care about acceleration or video, so yes it's a bit sluggish but it's ok for my usage.
Next issues :

• get the touch screen to work. I can plug a usb mouse and have a pointer moving around but it's too big and I want to use the touch screen.
  
• Second issue, looks like a show stopper : Can I use Kodi with just a touch screen and no keyboard ? It looks like navigating back in some menus requires LEFT or ESCAPE ?
  

[DarrenHill]

Look at a touchscreen optimised skin like Estouchy