PiTFT doesnot work after rpi-update

Question

I updated the firmware with command :

sudo REPO_URI=https://github.com/notro/rpi-firmware rpi-update

This install the kernel 3.18.5+

After reboot, the PiTFT is no more showing console as before (this is configured in /boot/cmdline.txt with fbcon=map:10 fbcon=font:VGA8x8)

The dmesg command report an error related to the fbtft_device module :

[   12.677434] fbtft_device:  SPI devices registered:
[   12.692614] fbtft_device:  'fb' Platform devices registered:
[   12.705285] fbtft_device:      bcm2708_fb id=-1 pdata? no
[   12.713274] fbtft_device:  spi_busnum_to_master(0) returned NULL
[   12.721724] fbtft_device: failed to register SPI device

Trying to insert (again) the module manually with the command

sudo modprobe -v fbtft_device debug=255

Reports :

insmod /lib/modules/3.18.5+/kernel/drivers/video/fbdev/fbtft/fbtft_device.ko  name=pitft rotate=270 debug=255
ERROR: could not insert 'fbtft_device': Invalid argument

The problems seems links to SPI, but even if I insert spi-bcm2708 module manually the result is the same.

How to insert (with this new kernel & firmware) the PiTFT module ?

==UPDATE==
I rollback to the previous release with

sudo REPO_URI=https://github.com/notro/rpi-firmware rpi-update 4815829b3f98e1b9c2648d9643dfe993054923ce

And PiTFT works as before the update, then dmesg reports :

[   12.758277] fbtft_device:  SPI devices registered:
[   12.765007] fbtft_device:      spidev spi0.0 500kHz 8 bits mode=0x00
[   12.776683] fbtft_device:      spidev spi0.1 500kHz 8 bits mode=0x00
[   12.785487] fbtft_device:  'fb' Platform devices registered:
[   12.793988] fbtft_device:      bcm2708_fb id=-1 pdata? no
[   12.806073] fbtft_device: Deleting spi0.0
[   12.818076] fbtft_device:  GPIOS used by 'pitft':
[   12.824597] fbtft_device:    'dc' = GPIO25
[   12.844709] fbtft_device:  SPI devices registered:
[   12.856177] fbtft_device:      spidev spi0.1 500kHz 8 bits mode=0x00
[   12.864281] fbtft_device:      fb_ili9340 spi0.0 32000kHz 8 bits mode=0x00

According to the insmod output you are not using the new kernel, presumably because this isn't a pi 2. The -v7 kernel will not run on anything else. — goldilocks, Feb 15 '15 at 19:29
@goldilocks : it's a Pi B+ (CPU revision 0010), is this a Pi-2 ? The working kernel is 3.12.34+, and the 'not' working kernel is 3.18.5+. — mpromonet, Feb 15 '15 at 19:41
May be a device tree problem. See http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/27073/firmware-3-18-x-breaks-i2c-spi-audio-lirc-1-wire-e-g-dev-i2c-1-no-such-f/27074#27074 — joan, Feb 15 '15 at 19:49
@mpromonet no the B+ is not the same as the Pi 2. Pi 2 just recently came out. On my pi 2 (haven't ran rpi-update since yesterday) I'm on Linux 3.18.7-v7+ #755 SMP PREEMPT Thu Feb 12 17:20:48 GMT 2015 armv7l — geoffmcc, Feb 15 '15 at 20:00
The B+ and the Pi 2 are not the same, no. The latter just came out a few weeks ago and uses a quad core ARMv7 processor, which is why there is the new kernel for it. That shouldn't be the cause of your problem though. I'd have a look at the question joan pointed out. — goldilocks, Feb 15 '15 at 20:00
@joan : you are right, Thanks for the link. The problem is fixed adding dtparam=spi=on in /boot/config.txt (or enable SPI through raspi-config). — mpromonet, Feb 15 '15 at 22:14
If you found a solution, can you write it up as an answer for posterity? You may have to wait 24 hours or something before you can tick it. — goldilocks, Feb 16 '15 at 12:39

mpromonet · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-14T09:29:32.640

From the forum I2C, SPI, I2S, LIRC, PPS, stopped working? Read this and FBTFT wiki

This could be done in 2 ways, modifying /boot/config.txt :

Disabling device tree, enabling SPI and loading fbtft_device module using sudo modprobe -v fbtft_device name=pitft rotate=270

device_tree=
dtparam=spi=on

Enabling device tree and load pitft overlay (take care to not load fbtft_device module, it made the system hangs)

dtoverlay=pitft,rotate=270

After reboot, the PiTFT display is back.

UPDATE The FBTFT drivers are now in the linux kernel, then is works also with the firmware coming from Hexxeh using simply :

sudo rpi-update

PiTFT doesnot work after rpi-update

1 Answers1