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Display/Troubleshooting

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Generic debugging steps

Changing the panning

Some devices might have a framebuffer virtual size thats twice as big as the panel resolution, this is a common double buffering method. The application renders to one side of the display while the panning is set to the other side. You can try changing the panning with the `panning` file in the sysfs directory.

$ cat /sys/class/graphics/fb0/virtual_size
todo: add file contents here
$ cat /sys/class/graphics/fb0/pan
todo: add file contents here
$ echo 0 0 > /sys/class/graphics/fb0/pan

Qualcomm framebuffer (mdss, mdp3)

MSM framebuffer doesn't work

We found out that removing the 3D driver support makes the MSM framebuffer. See #66.

CONFIG_MSM_KGSL=n

On devices using the mdss_fb driver, adding mdss-fb-init-hack to the dependencies of the device package (example) might help.

Screen output flicker and inactivity

If you notice a very brief flicker upon boot, but immediately disappears and screen turns black, you might have a buggy framebuffer Qualcomm MDSS MDP3 driver.

You can try patching the source code by removing the function assigned to the mdp3_interface->off_fnc in the mdp3_ctrl.c file.

See example patch: 05_fix_mdp3_ctrl_off.patch

Screen output messed up

If the output on the screen is not aligned correctly (see picture) it's probably because you have a wrong value in /sys/class/graphics/fb0/bits_per_pixel.

You can try patching the source code by setting a different video mode (RGB/ARGB/RGBA/YCRYCB/...).

This may also help, when your X11 is segfaulting (see #779).

See example patch: 06_fix_mdss_fb_rgb_mode.patch

My screen is red!

Set deviceinfo_weston_pixman_type (see deviceinfo reference) to enable a workaround for Weston #54.


Kernel patch

Alternatively, we have the following kernel patch. However, we don't recommend it anymore, since it seems to fix the colors in Weston, but causes the colors in kwin (Plasma Mobile) to be displayed wrong.

diff --git a/drivers/video/msm/mdss/mdss_fb.c b/drivers/video/msm/mdss/mdss_fb.c
index 53112ca6..69673017 100644
--- a/drivers/video/msm/mdss/mdss_fb.c
+++ b/drivers/video/msm/mdss/mdss_fb.c
@@ -569,7 +569,7 @@ static int mdss_fb_probe(struct platform_device *pdev)
 	mfd->bl_level = 0;
 	mfd->bl_scale = 1024;
	mfd->bl_min_lvl = 30;
-	mfd->fb_imgType = MDP_RGBA_8888;
+	mfd->fb_imgType = MDP_RGB_888;
 
 	mfd->pdev = pdev;
 	if (pdata->next)

Alternative patch: 0001-fix-video-argb-setting.patch (requires CONFIG_FB_MSM_DEFAULT_DEPTH_ARGB8888=y in the kernel config).

Screen doesn't refresh

Check if your screen refreshes when you do the following:

$ cat /sys/class/graphics/fb0/modes > /sys/class/graphics/fb0/mode

If it does, enable deviceinfo_msm_refresher (see deviceinfo reference) and add msm-fb-refresher to the depends= of your device-package. It will basically do the same automatically.

(If the above command does not refresh your screen, you could try the msm-fb-refresher anyway.)

Note Make sure you zap the device rootfs after enableing the msm refresher, otherwise it will only get installed as a service and not enabled by the postmarketos-base install script (you'll only see a second of splash-screen otherwise and the refresher won't be restarted after exiting the initramfs

Screen is blank outside of Weston

Something like that should help, see #603:

$ echo 0 > /sys/class/graphics/fb0/blank
$ echo 1 > /sys/devices/fd900000.qcom,mdss_mdp/qcom,mdss_fb_primary.134/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness