Installing GUIslice on Raspberry Pi

Overview >

Installing & Running on Raspberry Pi

Installing Prerequisites

• Installing Raspbian and PiTFT configuration

  • The following was written for the PiTFT 2.8" display, but a similar setup should accommodate other displays (such as WaveShare)
  • Installing PiTFT on Raspberry Pi

• Installing SDL1.2

  • Installing SDL 1.2 for Raspberry Pi

• Installing tslib

  • In my experience, it seems that the native SDL touch handling is not very reliable. Instead, I recommend that the tslib library is installed instead:
  • Installing tslib for Raspberry Pi

• Old Archived Installation pages

  • The original installation guide pages can be located at:
  • Installing PiTFT in LINUX
  • Installing SDL 1.2 for Raspberry Pi
  • Installing tslib for Raspberry Pi

Installing GUIslice

• Download the GUIslice library
  • Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/ImpulseAdventure/GUIslice
• Modify the GUIslice config file (GUIslice_config.h) in the /src folder to select your device setup
  • Please refer to Configuring GUIslice for details

Compiling GUIslice

GUIslice comes with a Makefile that can be used directly with the make command. However, it is also possible to auto-generate a Makefile via cmake. The following summarizes the two approaches.

For the following, start by entering the GUIslice linux examples folder: cd examples/linux

Method 1: Compiling with built-in Makefile

By default, the GUIslice makefile defaults to SDL1.2 graphics mode and using the tslib touch driver. If no other options are provided to make, these defaults will be used.

• To build all examples with default SDL1.2 graphics & tslib touch:
  • make all
• To build a specific example with default SDL1.2 graphics & tslib touch:
  • make ex04_lnx_ctrls
• To change the graphics driver (eg. SDL1.2 vs SDL2), you can pass a GSLC_DRV=SDL1 or GSLC_DRV=SDL2` parameter:
  • make ex02_lnx_btn_txt GSLC_DRV=SDL2
• To change the touch driver (eg. SDL or tslib), you can pass a GSLC_TOUCH=SDL or GSLC_TOUCH=TSLIB parameter:
  • make ex07_lnx_slider GSLC_TOUCH=SDL
• The options can be combined, for example:
  • make ex06_lnx_callback GSLC_TOUCH=TSLIB GSLC_DRV=SDL2
  • make all GSLC_TOUCH=TSLIB

Note regarding SDL2 graphics mode:

• In general, I have found configuring LINUX to work with SDL2 mode from the console (ie. without X / desktop) to be tricky. Therefore, users are strongly recommended to use SDL1.2 mode if possible.
• At a later stage I may publish a more detailed guide explaining how to run SDL2 from the shell (without X)

Note regarding SDL touch mode:

• In my experience, I have found that the RPi SDL touch handling drivers are not very reliable. I strongly recommend users select tslib as shown above.

Method 2: Auto-generating Makefile with cmake

cmake .
make

• TODO: Fix the recommendations here to include a make target and include examples/CMakeLists.txt

Running GUIslice

• Compile the examples as in the previous step
• Run the examples:

sudo ./ex02_lnx_btn_txt