Unable to get display working at all.

[CJeffyB]

I have a PiTFT Plus 480x320 3.5" TFT+Touchscreen for Raspberry Pi. The screen was installed with the commands:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/Adafruit-PiTFT-Helper/master/adafruit-pitft-helper2.sh chmod +x adafruit-pitft-helper2.sh sudo ./adafruit-pitft-helper2.sh
The screen works perfectly fine, and will display the console with no trouble.

It is running on a Pi 3 with the latest OctoPi release, Jesse Lite. I have followed the installation instructions:
sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-0 sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg xinit wget https://github.com/mcuadros/OctoPrint-TFT/releases/download/v0.1.2/octoprint-tft_0.1.2-1.jessie_armhf.deb sudo dpkg -i octoprint-tft_0.1.2-1.jessie_armhf.deb
However, nothing changes on the display.

I have also made sure to check the steps listed in this thread:
#5

Things look to be running OK, but there is no output on the TFT.
When installing the TFT software package from Adafruit, as part of the setup, I am given the option to choose if the console appears on the TFT (and choosing "yes" makes the console appear, choosing "no" does not, and keeps the screen blank). However, no matter which option I pick, this package does not display on the TFT.

Is there anything else I can check, or should be doing? What additional information can I provide, in order to assist you with troubleshooting?

I will also note, my brother has the exact same setup as I, and he is having the same issue.

Also, I have noted something, and I'm not sure if it is related or not, please let me know if it should be a separate issue:
My printer is typically "off", and I use the GPIO of the Pi to turn it on when needed. Usually, OctoPrint maintains a blank display in the "Terminal" tab of the website. Once I install OctoPrint-TFT, it is constantly attempting to connect to the printer, and the Terminal tab shows:
Changing monitoring state from 'Offline' to 'Detecting serial port' Serial port list: [] Changing monitoring state from 'Detecting serial port' to 'Error: Failed to autodetect serial port, please set it manually.' Failed to autodetect serial port, please set it manually.
With that sequence in a constant scroll loop.
Again, I have no idea if this is related to my inability to display on the TFT or not, but wanted to include it just in case. If this is not related, please let me know, and I will create it as a separate issue.

[webs1821]

I've got the same issue with the reconnecting if my printer is off.

[CJeffyB]

@webs1821
Do you have any troubles with the screen? Should I assume the constant reconnection attempts are unrelated to the lack of display, and file it as a new / separate bug report?

[CJeffyB]

I did also just verify that OctoPiPanel does in fact work properly on this install. So whatever the problem is, it is something to do with this software, and the installation / running of it...

[webs1821]

@CJeffyB
I had an issue with the resolution - as mentioned here #8 - but patch resolves my problem. But sometimes resolution changes to higher values when some error occured.
Probably I will be able to write some more during next week because I started to use Octoprint this week and I am still configuring this :)
I think that Octoprint-TFT is a great idea!

[CJeffyB]

I have managed to fix the display problem, it was a matter of a couple different things. Here are the steps I followed:

• Install the TFT with Adafruit's script:
  cd ~ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/Adafruit-PiTFT-Helper/master/adafruit-pitft-helper2.sh chmod +x adafruit-pitft-helper2.sh sudo ./adafruit-pitft-helper2.sh
  When asked if you want the console to appear on the PiTFT display, answer "yes".
• Install the prerequisites for OctoPrint-TFT:
  sudo apt install xserver-xorg sudo apt install xinit sudo apt install libgtk-3-0 sudo apt install xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
  The last item, "xserver-xorg-video-fbdev" was needed because OctoPrint does not include the required display driver.
• Install OctoPrint-TFT:
  wget https://github.com/mcuadros/OctoPrint-TFT/releases/download/v0.1.2/octoprint-tft_0.1.2-1.jessie_armhf.deb sudo dpkg -i octoprint-tft_0.1.2-1.jessie_armhf.deb
• Create the X config file for the TFT:
  sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-pitft.conf
• Paste the following contents:
  Section "Device" Identifier "Adafruit PiTFT" Driver "fbdev" Option "fbdev" "/dev/fb1" EndSection
• Remove an old / incorrect config file:
  sudo mv /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-fbturbo.conf ~
• Change the OctoPrint-TFT service to output to framebuffer 1, rather than 0:
  sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/octoprint-tft.service
  and edit the command line from:
  ExecStart=/usr/bin/xinit /usr/bin/OctoPrint-TFT -- :0 -nolisten tcp -nocursor
  to
  ExecStart=/usr/bin/xinit /usr/bin/OctoPrint-TFT -- :1 -nolisten tcp -nocursor
• Make sure things are linked properly:
  sudo ln -sf /lib/systemd/system/octoprint-tft.service /etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service systemctl set-default graphical.target
  Reboot and thing should work!

The constant attempts to connect to the printer are still continuing, and I'm pretty certain they are a separate issue. I will repost that.

[CJeffyB]

@mcuadros The above steps are what was necessary to get the Adafruit PiTFT working. I don't know if you want to close this, and add those steps in a note as part of the setup instructions, or not. But I wanted to have them documented somewhere...

[peteboz]

FYI the steps above also work for the Waveshare 3.5inch RPi LCD (A) 320×480 display. Just be sure to replace the Adafruit install script in the first step with driver from the waveshare site. The rest appears to work the same. Thanks.

[amrithmmh]

@CJeffyB thanks for the steps...yes i think you should add this to the readme file it works on Waveshare 3.5 lcd(B)

[CJeffyB]

@mcuadros how could I go about adding these steps to the readme / documentation? Or is that something that you need to do?

[mcuadros]

you can add it, to the Wiki, and reference it from the readme. Thanks!

[mcuadros]

(the strange thing is that I create the project using a Waveshare 3.5)

[CJeffyB]

I believe I have done so. The only (small) issue was that there is no wiki on the main repo, so I could only create the page on my fork. The Readme references that wiki, and should probably be adjusted once the wiki exists on the @mcuadros branch.

I also took the liberty of making a few grammatical corrections/updates...

[ksiads]

I've tried just about everything I can think of to get OctoPrint-TFT running on my 3.5" Waveshare but no luck. I wanted to try CJeffyB's Adafruit script but I wasn't sure how to replace the Adafruit driver in the first step with the Waveshare driver.

Has anyone been able to figure out how to get OctoPrint-TFT working on a Waveshare 3.5?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.