Raspberry Pi configuration

This is a work in progress - I will add to it as development progresses

Prerequisites & Dependencies

Note that the steps described below are necessary to get to a position where the Europi software can be installed on a Raspberry Pi.

Initial steps

Starting with a new, clean install of Raspbian, perform all the usual steps to get it connected to the Internet, secured etc., I am not going to try and document that process here, as it is better to simply refer to www.raspberrypi.org. Suffice it to say that the minimal steps, starting from a new, clean install of Raspbian Jessie are:

open a terminal and type sudo raspi-config to open the Config utility
Expand Filesystem
Select Boot options, and choose Console Autologin (we don't want it booting into X all the time)
Select Advanced, and enable SPI and I2C
Finish and Reboot

Alternatively, use the Raspberry Pi Imager, which is a free SD Card imager to download and flash the SD Card. One of the advantages of this is that it has a 'Hidden Menu', which you select using Ctrl+Shift+X and which enables you to pre-enable SSH, and WiFi access, which is very handy if you are setting up a Pi in Headless mode.

Once the initial steps are completed, make sure the Pi is connected to the Internet, then run:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade (this can take some time)

make sure the Pi is on the latest firmware:

sudo rpi-update

Note: It will need to be re-booted after the firmware update

Enable the SPI and I2C busses, abd set the I2C Bus to its maximum baud rate of 400KHz

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Find and uncomment the following lines:

dtparam=spi=on
dtparam=i2c_arm=on

and add the following at the end of the second of those. This sets the I2C bus speed to its maximum value of 400KHz:

dtparam=i2c_arm=on,i2c_arm_baudrate=400000

Check that the SPI and I2C busses are enabled:

The following will list all devices on the I2C bus, which is handy when fault-finding connectivity to I2C devices.

i2cdetect -y 1

Install some programs we'll need later:

sudo apt-get install i2c-tools libopenal1 libopenal-dev automake libtool cmake libbsd-dev

Install the Kernel Headers (not included in the Lite version of the OS and, seemingly missing from the full Stretch version too)

sudo apt-get install libraspberrypi-dev raspberrypi-kernel-headers

Install the PIGPIO Library:

wget https://github.com/joan2937/pigpio/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip
cd pigpio-master
make
sudo make install

Install the TFT screen driver

In the early versions of Raspbian, small TFT Screens were supported via separate device drivers. Originally this involved re-building the kernel but, since around 2015, these separate drivers are in the Linux Kernel staging tree.

Versions of Debian/Raspbian built upon Linux kernel version 5.4 onwards no longer supports / includes the fbtft_device driver. Instead, TFT screens are supported through the use of Device Tree Overlays.

For instruction on installing the Legacy fbtft_driver see here