Does anyone have any further details on why the gui-v2 doesnt work on a pi. I’ve heard it’s hardware acceleration issue but not found any specific details.
Is it a case of someone working out how to build venus os with hardware acceleration flags enabled for a pi?
Or is it more complicated than that?
If it is just working out how to build openembed with the correct flags I’ll take the plunge and get a second pi to test compiling it but if it’s more involved I’d be worried I’d be running into a brick wall.
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any real interest from the Victron team on this issue. On github you’ll see they have basically thrown their hands up, even though when v3.50 was released we were assured that the issue was being worked on.
But, yes, from what I understand it’s basically that someone needs to figure out how to get graphics acceleration working… though apparently you need to be a “guru” for Victron and co. to accept your help.
“working on it” means you’re working on it – not given up.
Nothing is “Free.” I have a huge amount invested in other Victron hardware, and a fair amount of time invested in the Pi. I chose the Pi because it’s more performant and flexible than the CeroGX, even if that meant a little more work on my part to implement, and no official support – but since I’d be customising some things anyway, official support was already out the window. Seeing “the good news is that we’re working on it” in an official release announcement gave me confidence that Victron still intended to support the Pi, so it would be okay to invest my time with the Pi.
Now, if I’m reading you correctly, you’re basically saying I’m a red-headed step-child and should be happy with the gruel that’s being served in the Pi line. Sorry, when I see “it’s being worked on” I expect it to be worked on, even if it’s “free”. Yes, I expect some local GUI V2 in my Pi gruel.
There are multiple area that need to be changed, including a kernel upgrade, base systems upgrade. These are all underway and once this is done then it is easier to address the video hardware acceleration issues that are needed.
Just do some searches of the web regarding kennel versions and hardware graphics acceleration and your I’ll see that a lot needs to be done to get QT working. It will take time.
Please note that it will be a complete re-image from scratch and not an upgrade, as boot level changes need to be made. This will bring issues with upgrades for all RPI systems. When teh RPI4 support was made, everyone had to re-image to get upgrades.
“we are working on it” - was a statement half a year ago and it just wasn’t updated to “we paused/cancelled the development”.
Maybe there will be an update to that someday or maybe not.
Victron is focusing on Venus OS 3.60 right now and after that they start with 3.70.
Maybe they will continue to the work on the rPi or maybe not.
My guess is that they will not spend more time on that after the release of the “Android GX Display” Feature.
Thanks for the information, Mark. I searched quite a bit and couldn’t find anything that implied any forward momentum for GUI v2 on the Pi since the initial “we’re working on it”… quite the opposite.
A re-image is understandable.
Can you point me to a link where I can track any progress being made here?
There is no direct link, other than the git issues you are already aware off. I am just aware of what is needed and watching all the other commits related to more low level activity that is happening and needed, such as kernel udpates. I did the RPI4 work a few years back and so am aware of what is needed, When key elements are in play I am sure that the support will arrive.
I managed sometime back to get the GUI running on an RPI, but without the graphics acceleration it is slow. As I stated we need a much newer kernel and other changes to make this plug and play and not take serious kernel and graphics driver development. It just is not worth it for Victron.
It will be available when it is available and if needed then there is always the supported route. I can assure you that the percentage of RPI devices in use verses other Victron hardware is very small and therefore the Victron’s own hardware is going to be a priority.
If the community want to support and have Openembedded, Linux Kernel and Graphics development background I am sure that Victron would be happy to have the help from the community. However to-date there have been lots of requests for the capability and not any offers of help, except for testing.
Of course it’s not a high priority, but if a company announces that they are working on something, I will hold them to that. To come back later and basically say “yeah, ya know, we found it a little harder than we thought, sooo… nah… forget what we said before… if you want it, you do it” – that doesn’t inspire confidence.
I’m glad to see there are steps being taken towards GUI v2 support on the Pi.
