[PLUGIN] Touch Display

The --force-device-scale-factor flag seems to have issues sometimes as reported here. Alternatively manipulating /data/volumiokiosk/Default/Preferences as described in the linked thread has the risk that the structure / content of the Preferences file could change on any update of the chromium browser. While this would not be an issue for the current Jessie based Volumio (because there will most probably no more updates for chromium browser :wink: ) this could change when Volumio will be based on Buster which is in development right now. I will think about your request, but IMHO the better way to tackle the issue would be an option in Volumio itself allowing to scale the UI.

First thank you for the link, I didn’t found that one. But till now I don’t have any issues. For sure an integrated scale option would be the best option. But I had a look at the UI programming, and there are so many hardcoded sizes espacially at the circles, that I don’t think this will happen soon :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: .

And the UI on 3.xx was not really better when I tested it a few weeks ago.

Thank you for keeping it in mind!

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hello,
i recently got the Allo DigiOne Signature with RPI4.
it sounds just fine but now i would like to have the 7" hdmi display working.
ideally, i would like something like jivelite which would show what is playing on squeezelite. please advise on the best way to do this.

i just tried to install Touch Display plugin but it crashed at about 70% completion.
thank you for any insights…

Hi @gchip7groundie,

what is the Volumio and the Touch Display plugin version?

What is the exact brand and model name of the display?

Did you install any other software (e.g. some kind of drivers) for the display?

My guess is the installation did not crash but probably you did not wait long enough to let it finish. During its installation the plugin downloads quite a lot of packages in the background and installs them. This can definitely take several minutes.

I would recommend to try installing the plugin again. Possibly connect to Volumio via SSH and watch the logs with sudo journactl -f during the installation process.

hi, this is the latest volumio download:
volumio-2.777-2020-05-25-pi.img.zip
and the plug-in is also the latest on the web UI.

yes, install was doing a lot of installs and then, it seemed to be stuck at 70% for several minutes. that is when i rebooted.
if in fact i am able to install this plug-in successfully,
will i be closer to my goal of jivelite-like abilities?
what exactly will i be able to do with this plug-in?
how about LXDE? can i install it?

have you changed the default password in volumio? If yes, it prevent from installing plugins… yes, it’s a ‘bug’

@ gchip7groundie So the Touch Display plugin is working now?

I don’t know jivelite so can’t comment on that topic. Same goes for squeezelite, but there in the category “music-service” you find a squeezelite plugin available to install and configure a Squeezelite client. What I can say is that the Touch Display plugin “just” shows the same content you can see in a web browser from another device.

I would not recommend that. LXDE will probably interfere with the Xserver the Touch Display plugin uses.

no, i have restored Volumio before the plug-in attempt.
squeezelite is installed and working great.
it’s just that i prefer to interact with it on the local 7" screen instead of external browser or app. i am going to look into how i can install jivelite; i am rather surprised that someone else has not done this already. most people who run LMS, squeezelite also run jivelite for UI.

i agree LXDE would not be helpful.
what is the best way to start some app (e.g., jivelite or squeezelite) upon boot?
via rc.local?

What is the difference with touch display plugin + virtual keyboard (both from Gvolt)?

As far as I see jivelite is a UI / visualization for the LMS. Volumio has its own UI and you can’t run two UIs at once on the same screen (well, at least not without a lot of work I guess :wink: ).

I may be wrong, but would jivelite not be redundant when using the squeezelite plugin and the Volumio UI? The squeezelite plugin also controls the start of squeezelite so there would be no need using rc.local or an own systemd service file to accomplish autostart.

If you are unsure if your system has been messed up by the past installation attempts I would suggest to start from scratch and install the touch display plugin and the squeezelite plugin. As pointed out above, don’t change the default password.

yes, it’s either jivelite or volumio as far as UI is concerned.
for someone using squeezelite, jivelite is the preferred UI.
as for my question about rc.local, i’m curious how the touch-display-plugin gets started.
since if i manage to get jivelite installed, i’d want to start it in a similar way.

When the touch display plugin is started it starts a systemd service (volumio-kiosk.service) which launches an Xserver executing /usr/bin/startx /etc/X11/Xsession /opt/volumiokiosk.sh -- -nocursor. volumiokiosk.sh in essence starts the openbox window manager and the chromium-browser in kiosk mode showing the Volumio UI.

thanks for your info and help.

UPDATE:
i managed to set up jivelite by copying relevant files from an existing sd card.
when run, it did show its first logo, then blank screen.
thinking it was missing all normal graphic support,
i installed lxde which took a while, perhaps 30 minutes or so.
upon boot, lxde showed up beautifully and from there, jivelite could be run.

of course, i only wanted jivelite when booted, so in /usr/bin/startlxde
i made the following change to run jivelite instead of lxde:
#exec /usr/bin/lxsession -s LXDE-pi -e LXDE
Add another line below it that says this:
exec /home/pi/jivelite/jivelite/bin/jivelite

NOTE: upon lxde install, wifi did not work. i believe someone else reported this.
i solved by enabling Network Manager, setting up wpa_supplicant.service and
dhclient.service. all is explained in the following link:

I have this plugin installed (v1.1.8) on a RP3B+ with this touchscreen. I installed via the plugin manager in settings.

Everything seems to work except the screensaver does not seem to function for me.

I reduced the time to 10 seconds for the purpose of testing. After ten seconds the screens flashes off. In that it seems to go to sleep as desired but instantly awakes.

This happens if the music (web radio) is playing or not. “No screensaver whilst playing” is set to off.

Screen is rotated 90’.

GPU and mouse settings are both off.

Please capture the log with sudo journalctl -f in the moment you set the screensaver timeout in the UI and then until the screen gets activated. Then post the log as text in code tags.

Edit: If possible test the screensaver function using another HDMI monitor to rule out an issue with your touchscreen.

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Wow, gvolt, thanks again for the fast response.

I tested this on a TV and indeed the screensaver functions as expected. So there does seem something going on with the touchscreen.

I need to research on how to connect to my device via terminal on my mac to capture the log. I’ve not done that before, as soon as I’ve figured it out I’ll post the log as you describe.

[edit] as I was looking up how to start SSH I saw that in http://volumio.local/dev/ there is a live log. Is that the same as the log you refer to? I didn’t see anything special when screensaver started and stopped but the following is looping constantly.

info: CoreCommandRouter::volumioGetState
info: CorePlayQueue::getTrack 0

[another edit] I enabled SSH on volumio when I type ssh root@volumio.local it connects but password volumio does not work. I’m not sure I should be connecting to root. Would very much appreciate if you could guide me how to connect here. [yet another edit] No worries, I figured it out :slight_smile: ssh volumio@IPaddress pw volumio - cool!

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Yes, could be the DPMS implementation is not ok. For another elecrow screen (3.5", SPI connected) it has been confirmed that “it does not support to switch off display in running-time”.

A shot in the dark: You could try adding hdmi_blanking=1 to your /boot/userconfig.txt.

You may also check if disconnecting the USB connection between the screen and the Raspberry which is used for the touch function helps.

To connect via SSH use: ssh volumio@volumio.local or ssh volumio@<ip-address>. Then pw “volumio” should work.

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When I did this the screen displayed the boot routine but went blank once Volumio had fully started.

Removing this lead disconnected the power to the screen. So I tried putting the USB into the microusb marked “power”. The result was the same as previously minus the touch functionality - ie the screen flashed off but instantly came back on. I then wondered if it was because the power was coming from the Pi USB so connected a separate 5V power to the power. This did not make a difference.

[edit] I thought I’d broken the screen when I did this last part, but it’s working again - phew

Good to hear :slight_smile:

Could you post the results DISPLAY=:0 xset q yields before you set the screensaver timeout and after the screen has awoken unwantedly?

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