Working with Raspberry Pi

Pi5/CM5/CM4/CM3+/CM3 Hardware Connection

1. Use the "FFC Cable 22PIN 200mm (Reverse)" cable to connect the DSI port of the display to the 22PIN DSI port of the Raspberry Pi board.

2. Use the "GPIO connection cable" to connect the power connector of the display to the 5V GND pin header of the Raspberry Pi board.

   

3. Secure the Raspberry Pi to the display with M2.5 screws.

   The installation is as follows:

   

Pi4B/3B+/3B/3A+ Hardware Connection

1. Use the "DSI-Cable-12cm" cable to connect the DSI port of the display to the 15PIN DSI port of the Raspberry Pi board.

2. Use the "GPIO connection cable" to connect the power connector of the display to the 5V GND pin header of the Raspberry Pi board.

   

3. Secure the Raspberry Pi to the display with M2.5 screws.

   The installation is as follows:

   

warning

Please ensure the DSI cable is connected in the correct orientation and that 5V power is supplied via the GPIO pins.

When inserting or removing the DSI connector, handle it gently, avoiding excessive force or angled insertion/removal, to prevent damage to the connector or poor contact.

Software Settings

Flash Latest Trixie/Bookworm System

1. Connect the TF card to the PC, download and use Raspberry Pi Imager to flash the corresponding system image.

   

2. After the flashing is completed, insert the TF card into the Raspberry Pi, power it on, and log in to the terminal (you can connect the Raspberry Pi to an HDMI display or log in remotely via SSH).

3. Run the following commands in the terminal to install the drivers:

   wget https://files.waveshare.com/wiki/common/Panel-waveshare-dsi2-driver.zip
   unzip Panel-waveshare-dsi2-driver.zip
   cd Panel-waveshare-dsi2-driver/panel-waveshare-dsi2-driver
   make
   sudo rm /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/regulator/waveshare-panel-regulator.ko.xz
   sudo rm /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/panel/panel-waveshare-dsi-v2.ko.xz
   sudo cp ./waveshare-panel-regulator.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)
   sudo cp ./panel-waveshare-dsi-v2.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)
   sudo depmod
   sudo modprobe waveshare-panel-regulator
   sudo modprobe panel-waveshare-dsi-v2
   sudo dtc -I dts -O dtb -o vc4-kms-dsi-waveshare-panel-v2.dtbo vc4-kms-dsi-waveshare-panel-v2-overlay.dts
   sudo cp vc4-kms-dsi-waveshare-panel-v2.dtbo /boot/overlays/

4. Configure config.txt file

   sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

   Note: Since Pi5/CM5/CM4/CM3+/CM3 have two MIPI DSI interfaces, pay attention to using the correct DSI interface and command. The default recommendation is to use DSI1.

   dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d
   #DSI1 Use
   dtoverlay=vc4-kms-dsi-waveshare-panel-v2,4_3_inch_a
   #DSI0 Use
   # dtoverlay=vc4-kms-dsi-waveshare-panel-v2,4_3_inch_a,dsi0

5. Save and exit, and the screen will display touch normally after the system restarts.

Adjust Backlight Brightness

GUI Brightness Adjustment

The following steps are based on the Trixie system:

1. Click the top-left menu, go to Preferences → Control Center, and select Screens.

   

2. Go to "Screen" -> "DSI-2" -> "Brightness", check and adjust the desired backlight brightness, and finally click Apply to save the settings.

   
   info

   In the Bookworm system, this setting entry is located at Screen Configuration → Screen.

Use Waveshare Backlight Adjustment Application

You can also use the graphical backlight adjustment tool provided by Waveshare (this application is only for Trixie, Bookworm, and Bullseye systems):

wget https://files.waveshare.com/wiki/common/Brightness.zip
unzip Brightness.zip
cd Brightness
sudo chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

After the installation is completed, you can open the demo in the Start Menu -> Accessories -> Brightness, as shown below:

Adjust Backlight Brightness via Terminal

 echo X | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness

Where X represents any number from 0 to 255. 0 means the darkest backlight, and 255 means the brightest backlight. For example:

echo 100 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness
echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness
echo 255 | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/*/brightness

Trixie/Bookworm Display Rotation

GUI Rotation

The following steps are based on the Trixie system:

1. Click the top-left menu, go to Preferences → Control Center, and select Screens.

   

2. Go to "Screen" → "DSI-1" → "Touchscreen", check "10-0014 Goodix Capacitive TouchScreen".

   

3. Go to "Screen" → "DSI-2" → "Orientation", select the desired rotation, and click "Apply" to complete display and touch synchronization.

   
   info

   • In the Bookworm system, this setting is located at Screen Configuration → Screen.
   • The above synchronous rotation method is supported only on Trixie/Bookworm systems.

Lite Version Display Rotation

sudo nano /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt

Add the corresponding display rotation directive at the beginning of the cmdline.txt file, save, and reboot to take effect.

• Rotation commands

  #Display rotation 90 degrees
  video=DSI-1:480x800M@60,rotate=90
  
  #Display rotation 270 degrees
  video=DSI-1:480x800M@60,rotate=270
  
  #Display rotation 180 degrees
  video=DSI-1:480x800M@60,rotate=180

caution

1. If using Pi5/CM5, use the actual detected DSI display identifier, e.g., "DSI-2".
2. You cannot rotate the DSI display separately from the HDMI display using cmdline.txt. When you use both DSI and HDMI simultaneously, they share the same rotation value.

Touch Rotation

If you rotate using the GUI, you can check the "Touchscreen" option in the screen layout editor window to synchronize touch rotation. Please refer to the previous introduction for how to rotate the screen. For command-line rotation, refer to the following:

1. Create a new file named 99-waveshare-touch.rules

   sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-waveshare-touch.rules

2. Add the following lines as needed to set the touch rotation directive, then reboot to take effect.

   # Touch rotation 90 degrees
   ENV{ID_INPUT_TOUCHSCREEN}=="1", ENV{LIBINPUT_CALIBRATION_MATRIX}="0 -1 1 1 0 0"
   
   # Touch rotation 270 degrees
   ENV{ID_INPUT_TOUCHSCREEN}=="1", ENV{LIBINPUT_CALIBRATION_MATRIX}="0 1 0 -1 0 1"
   
   # Touch rotation 180 degrees
   ENV{ID_INPUT_TOUCHSCREEN}=="1", ENV{LIBINPUT_CALIBRATION_MATRIX}="-1 0 1 0 -1 1"
   
   # Save, exit, and reboot
   sudo reboot

Touch Mode Selection

The Trixie and Bookworm systems support two touch modes, which can be switched in the Screen Configuration > Touchscreen menu:

1. Mouse Emulation (default)

   • Click = Left mouse button function
   • Long press = Right mouse button function
   • Supports double-click
   • Does not support swiping pages or multi-touch

   Note: This mode is suitable for mouse-oriented scenarios, such as double-clicking to open the file manager, or long-pressing for right-click functions.

2. Multitouch

   • Supports multi-touch
   • Supports page swiping
   • Does not support double-click or long-press for right-click

   Note: This mode is suitable for touch-optimized scenarios, such as web browsing and scrolling lists.

Using Touchscreen Virtual Keyboard

Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm and later versions include Squeekboard on-screen keyboard by default.

• It automatically appears when text input is possible and hides when not.

• You can also manually show or hide it using the keyboard icon in the top-right corner of the taskbar.

  

  You can also permanently set the on-screen keyboard to show or hide via the top-left menu Preferences → Control Centre → Display.

  

  In the Bookworm system, you can set the keyboard to show or hide via Raspberry Pi Configuration → Display or raspi-config → Display.

  
  tip

  In versions of Raspberry Pi OS prior to Bookworm, use matchbox-keyboard. If using the wayfire compositor, use wvkbd.