FAQ

Q: OctoScreen doesn't work, or doesn't install, or doesn't display correctly. What's wrong?

A: It's impossible to know. The best getting started resource I know of is Chris Riley's video, OctoScreen - Octoprint Raspberry Pi -Touch Screen Plugin - Chris's Basement

Q: My screen is 480x320. When I run, the screen "resizes" and shifts things around, and some of the controls are "beyond the screen" and don't fit.

A: This is a known issue, and it's being looked into. What's happening is that your screen is 480x320 but OctoScreen is requiring 548x348 (ish) pixels. OctoScren is built using GTK (a Linux GUI library) and when a control takes up more space than what's available, instead of clipping the window, GTK expands the entire window. This causes your 480x320 to expand to 548x348, but it's still only able to display 480x320. Please read the articles Setting Up OctoScreen and Your Display and Installing OctoScreen with a 3.5" 480x320 TFT screen.

Q: How do I invert the Z-axis button?

A: You need to install the OctoPrint-Z-Bolt-OctoScreen plugin (https://github.com/Z-Bolt/OctoPrint-Z-Bolt-OctoScreen), and then go into OctoPrint's settings, navigate to the OctoPrint-Z-Bolt-OctoScreen plugin, and then check the invert Z-axis button.

Q: Does OctoScreen work using a distro other than OctoPi?

A: At this time, the only distro that's supported is OctoPi. It might work in other distros, but the only known working (and supported) distro is OctoPi.

Q: Can I use multiple displays?

A: No. OctoScreen is intended to be used as a small touchscreen controller for your 3D printer, allowing you to control it. OctoScreen uses GTK, and when it ruins, it assumes it's the only display you have connected.

Q: I'd like the screen to turn blank after a few minutes. How do I do that?

A: See the solutions posted at https://github.com/Z-Bolt/OctoScreen/issues/132 and https://github.com/Z-Bolt/OctoScreen/issues/96

Q: How do I enable logging? Why would I want to turn logging on?

A: Logging is a great tool to discover errors and to trouble shoot issues. When you report that "it crashe and restarts", well, that's not enough to go on. To set up logging in OctoScreen, do the following:
1.SSH into your OctoPi server
2.Edit the config file (typically nano /etc/octoscreen/config)
3.Look for OCTOSCREEN_LOG_FILE_PATH (or add it if it's missing)
4.Set the value to OCTOSCREEN_LOG_FILE_PATH="/home/pi/logs/logfile.txt"

Then create the initial log file by doing the following:

mkdir /home/pi/logs
touch /home/pi/logs/logfile.txt

Also, if you don't want logging turned on, either don't define OCTOSCREEN_LOG_FILE_PATH, or set OCTOSCREEN_LOG_FILE_PATH to an empty value (eg OCTOSCREEN_LOG_FILE_PATH=)

5.Set the logging level in /etc/octoscreen/config. The logger has different levels in which it logs messages. "debug" is the most verbose, where as "error" is the least. The different log levels (in order of increased logging) are: error, warn, info, debug.
Example: OCTOSCREEN_LOG_LEVEL=debug

Some additional tips about the log file:

• Log files aren't automatically truncated and will grow over time. For normal use, you'll probably want to set OCTOSCREEN_LOG_FILE_PATH= so log messages aren't added to your log file.
• When you encounter an issue, turn logging on by setting OCTOSCREEN_LOG_FILE_PATH=/home/pi/logs/logfile.txt (or whatever your log file path is) and also set OCTOSCREEN_LOG_LEVEL=debug.
• After setting the log file or changing the logging level, you will need to reboot your machine. Run sudo reboot now.