Raspberry Pi Zero W doesn't boot after fbtft install for Freetronics OLED 128

Support Raspberry Pi
1

Hi guys,

Got Raspian Jessie running on the Pi Zero W. Boot went smooth, SSH etc everything is good.

Then tried rpi update using the following commands to install fbtft (for additional frame buffer device - Freetronics OLED 128 display). As per this link --> https://www.freetronics.com.au/pages/oled128-quickstart-guide-raspberry-pi#.WRQ4j-V97BT

sudo wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update -O /usr/bin/rpi-update
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/rpi-update
sudo REPO_URI=https://github.com/notro/rpi-firmware rpi-update

Then rebooted.

Upon reboot the Pi wouldn’t boot at all. The yellow light of the Pi Zero just keeps blinking in a pattern.

Any help would be appreciated.

I think the Jessie doesn’t like rpi-update.

Thanks
Jyotishko

2

Hi Jyotishko,
The standard protocol for updating Raspbian using the terminal is the apt-get update and apt-get upgrade commands. Michael has had more touch time with the Pi Zero than I have, so he may be able to shed some more light on the issue when he is in.

3

Hey @Jyotishko36722,

I don’t have much experience with using rpi-update because it’s a pretty low-level tool. It sounds like your Pi won’t boot because there is something wrong with the kernel. The Pi Zero W is new, meaning gear suppliers have not had much opportunity to update their projects to remain compatible with the PZW. I think your question will be better supported over at freetronics’ dedicated OLED forum.

4

Hi Michael and Sam,

Thanks for your responses on this. Given that the zero is fairly new I
appreciate your help.

I was able to get some success getting it to work. The summary (so that the
next guy can save half a day) is that Jessie doesn’t need the kernel
update. However, the fb1 needs to be added so that the kernel uses it
instead of fb 0 during boot.

Hope it’s of some help. I’ve notified the freetronics guys so that they can
update their wiki.

Currently I’m trying to increase the brightness of the oled display which
had decreased all of a sudden and also trying to fix an issue where the
oled screen doesn’t work if I boot to CLI.

Any suggestions?

Cheers
JD

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