Multitouch Touchscreen Support

[ajoburg]

The touchscreen on my Acer T232HL (a somewhat new multitouch monitor) doesn't work under the latest version of Xbian. The monitor works fine, but the touchscreen doesn't work at all. That said, it does show up in "/proc/bus/input/devices" and it seems to list the correct device. Do I need to recompile the kernel with the following setting change?

CONFIG_INPUT_TOUCHSCREEN=y

Any suggestions on the best way to get this working would be hugely appreciated.

[namtih]

Did you already check this thread?
http://forum.xbian.org/thread-251.html

[CurlyMo]

Can you open an issue on your github requesting this module? Then we will add it in Beta 1.

[ajoburg]

CurlyMo, Thanks for your comment but I'm not actually sure yet if this is the only module required. Let me try to figure out what exactly needs to be done to get this to work and then I'll open the issue on github.

Thanks namtih. Yes, I had seen that post and quite a few others similar. It seems like people are having a difficult time getting touchscreens to work whether under Xbian, openelec, or Raspbmc. Here is a long thread on the Raspbmc board (generic enough to Xbian) about the challenges and what has been tried: http://forum.stmlabs.com/showthread.php?tid=564.

Interestingly, the touchscreen works fine with the latest Raspbian 3.6.y but does not work under Raspbian 3.2.27. For performance reasons, my preference is to not have to run Raspbian. Maybe the challenge is because XBMC runs in the framebuffer of the Pi?

Here is the dmesg output from Xbian 1.0 Alpha 4 which shows the device as recognized (below). I rebuilt the kernel under OpenELEC with these modules added and it had no impact. Do you think it is worth doing the same with Xbian? Or is there something else going on that I'm missing?

Quote:[ 3.107472] usb 1-1.3.1: New USB device found, idVendor=2149, idProduct=2306
[ 3.114398] usb 1-1.3.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 3.121990] usb 1-1.3.1: Product: CoolTouch™ System
[ 3.128889] usb 1-1.3.1: Manufacturer: Advanced Silicon S.A
[ 3.147134] hid-generic 0003:2149:2306.0002: hiddev0,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Device [Advanced Silicon S.A CoolTouch™ System] on usb-bcm2708_usb-1.3.1/input1
[ 16.921443] input: Advanced Silicon S.A CoolTouch™ System as /devices/platform/bcm2708_usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3.1/1-1.3.1:1.0/input/input3
[ 17.029094] hid-multitouch 0003:2149:2306.0001: input,hidraw4: USB HID v1.10 Device [Advanced Silicon S.A CoolTouch™ System] on usb-bcm2708_usb-1.3.1/input0

[CurlyMo]

On raspbian, you can try to do:

Code:

zcat /proc/config.gz > .config

and compare that file to:
https://raw.github.com/xbianonpi/xbian/xbian-alpha5/Patches/kernel/.config

[ajoburg]

Thanks CurlyMo. I ran the diff and there's a lot of differences between the config files.... Since the touchscreen works in LXDE under Raspbian 3.6.11, I'm compiling XBMC for my Raspbian 3.6.11 system. If that works, then I'm guessing I can assume it's a linux kernel issue and I can pursue which modules/config is needed. If the touchscreen doesn't work...then I'm guessing I can assume it's an XBMC issue.

How different do you expect the Xbian Beta to be from Raspbian 3.6.y? Is Alpha 4/5 closer to Raspbian 3.2.27?

Thanks for your help.

(15th Feb, 2013 07:00 AM)CurlyMo Wrote:  On raspbian, you can try to do:

Code:

zcat /proc/config.gz > .config

and compare that file to:
https://raw.github.com/xbianonpi/xbian/xbian-alpha5/Patches/kernel/.config

[CurlyMo]

Since Alpha 4 we're totally on 3.6.11

[ajoburg]

Thanks. I compiled XBMC under Raspbian 3.6.11 and the touchscreen still doesn't work in XBMC--though it does work in LXDE--so there must be something else going on here I need to get resolved.

I found this link on multitouch drivers (http://lii-enac.fr/en/architecture/linux-input/multitouch-howto.html#test) and tried to force hid-multitouch to manage the devices as per the bottom of the page, but that didn't seem to work either.

[rikardo1979]

maybe a chat with devs who porting XBMC for Android may help as they use touch input ?

[ajoburg]

That's a good idea. I'm beginning to think I need a more recent version of the hid-multitouch module. I've been able to get XBMC 12 running with the Touchscreen quite well under Ubuntu 13.04 (3.8.y kernel)...I guess I need to step it backwards to find a stable kernel that supports the device to get a sense of what changes I need in Xbian. Any thoughts on the easiest way for me to compile a module from a future kernel and get it working with the current release? Am I likely to have problems / stability issues doing this?

[CurlyMo]

I talked to brantje and he suggested me to include some new module he said made his touchscreen work. So, please await the Beta 1 git branch on which i shall upload them.

[ajoburg]

Thanks. Was it the USB_EGALAX that he mentioned at the end of his thread on his USB Touchscreen? If so, I'm not sure this is the right one for my screen. Mine uses Advanced Silicon's Cool Touch solution which is something different. I've tried compiling with other modules similar to this one enabled and haven't had success. The Touchscreen I'm trying to use is a brand new one that Microsoft is promoting in their retail stores along with Windows 8. I'm pretty sure (but not certain) that it is the version of HID_MULTITOUCH that is causing the issue I'm having.

[mattmuller]

Hi, did you ever get the Acer T232HL to work with XBMC on the Raspberry Pi with touch ability? Im about to take delivery of one of these and want to set up my Pi in anticipation.

thank,

Matt

[ajoburg]

(11th Jun, 2014 01:01 AM)mattmuller Wrote:  Hi, did you ever get the Acer T232HL to work with XBMC on the Raspberry Pi with touch ability? Im about to take delivery of one of these and want to set up my Pi in anticipation.

thank,

Matt

No, but this was some time ago when Raspbian was on a much older kernel. Wouldn't surprise me if that latest kernel works. If the 1/7/2014 Raspbian release doesn't work...try also running rpi-update b/c that will take you to 3.12.x

[mattmuller]

thanks, hopefully it will work.

cheers,

Matt