Now that 2025.02 is out of the door, I can focus on support for the Display 2.
I’ve already been playing with it, and want to share some details about the progress.
The Good
I’ve got the screen working. That’s the short version
The Bad
Remember that the Pi 5 does not support rotating the screen? This has to do with the graphics chip (I won’t go into detail, but if you’re interested let me know) which means you need to do rotation in the software. I didn’t want to do that, so I just removed the ‘rotation feature’ from RoPieee when running on the Pi 5. Now here’s the catch: as the Display 2 is natively a portrait screen, rotation is required. This means that I need to implement rotation in the software anyhow. Somewhat good news: I’ve got it almost working… And yeah, this means that rotation will return on the Pi 5, also for the 1.
So there’s a lot of work to do. It also means that quite some stuff needs to change, which costs quite some time and needs a lot of testing (also for the existing screen).
The Ugly
For some reason the touchscreen driver of the Display 2 screen sometimes crashes I’m having the idea this is only on the Pi 5. And yeah, it will take some time before I release this stuff, so maybe this will be fixed in the meantime in the kernel. But it does not make me happy…
So where to go from here?
I’m planning on releasing a beta build asap, because a lot of code will be touched. Which increases the risk of regressions, so we need to test test test. And from there on it will take a few beta builds to hash out all the issues. I hope that this stuff can land in 2025.03, but I’m not sure.
Oh. One minor friendly request. Don’t ask me when this will be ready. I don’t know. It will be ready when it’s ready
Will beta testing for this be on all beta releases (i.e. those of us that are not using display 2?).
In other words do we all need to worry about getting issues or just the people using Display 2.
Or am I missing something.
To be clear: there is no beta with display 2 support yet.
But when it is out there, we need to test: not only people with Display 2, but also with the ‘original’ touchscreen because quite some code has been touched by me. I just wanted to make sure that nothing broke the ‘original’ touchscreen functionality.
I wish they’d release a smaller official screen. I use a Waveshare screen in one instance and love it due to the form factor, but the screen itself is inferior.
Interesting, as I have been wondering whether in my case viewing the display around 2.5 metres from the listening position, I’d be able to tell a difference.
Quick question: On the display, whether 1 or 2, would it be possible to add a Roon logo on the screen? I run two displays with Ropieee and love them!
Just my two cents: please no logos on the display, or make it turn-off-able. I am happy the Ropiee display just shows what I am interested in. No need to plaster yet more logos on more things.
Things are looking good: the screen is now fully functionally working and provides 1-on-1 functionality as compared to the ‘old’ screen (“screen 1”).
Right now I’m testing stuff: as I mentioned the display software required some fundamental changes that also touch the ‘old’ screen, so that requires testing.
The idea for now is that I release a early beta soon-ish: probably (and hopefully) this weekend. We can then test in a broader team if everything is working, and more importantly: if everything still works on the old one.
I was wondering if anyone testing the new “Display 2” is seeing a strong color-cast? Mine is very warm. Almost a sepia look to it. Whites are yellowish. I’m wondering if I have a defective display or not.
I’m having the idea this is only on the Pi 5. And yeah, it will take some time before I release this stuff, so maybe this will be fixed in the meantime in the kernel. But it does not make me happy…
