Etiqueta: pibow

Boot to X Windows on PiTFT

To enable booting straight to X windows on the PiTFT follow the steps below.  First make sure a display configuration which would conflict is not present by executing in a terminal on the Pi:

sudo mv /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-fbturbo.conf ~

Don’t worry if the command fails with an error that the file doesn’t exist.  This failure is normal and should happen on a good PiTFT install.  You can ignore it and move on.

Next run the command below to open the nano text editor as root and create the file /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-pitft.conf:

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-pitft.conf

When the editor loads to a blank file, copy in the text below:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Adafruit PiTFT"
    Driver "fbdev"
    Option "fbdev" "/dev/fb1"
EndSection

Then save the file by pressing Ctrl-O and then enter, and finally exit by pressing Ctrl-X.

The step above will create a configuration file which tells X windows that it should use the PiTFT framebuffer (located at /dev/fb1) by default when it runs.

At this point you can use the raspi-config tool to enable booting to desktop just like normal on the Pi.  Run the following command:

sudo raspi-config

Then pick the Enable Boot to Desktop/Scratch option and choose if you want to boot to the console, desktop, or scratch environment.  After exiting the tool and rebooting you should see the Pi load X windows on the PiTFT after (be patient it can take around 30 seconds to load).

If you want to disable booting to X, just use the raspi-config command again to choose the console boot option.