Portrait Mode With Bookworm and Raspberry pi4 ?

[michaelpaar]

helgerbe,

Is it possible to invoke portrait mode using Bookworm and a pi4?

Regards,
mike

[sapnho]

I get this question quite often these days.

The old instruction set doesn't seem to do anymore: https://www.thedigitalpictureframe.com/raspberry-pi-digital-picture-frame-portrait-orientation/

Any thoughts on how to achieve this with Bookworm?

[sapnho]

Now that we have solved Bookworm + Wayland, does Portrait mode work again?

[adammhaile]

Now that we have solved Bookworm + Wayland, does Portrait mode work again?

Sadly no, @sapnho - I just came here to try and find a solution. I followed the directions at the link you posted above, but of course that doesn't work as you noted.
I have yet to find an actual solution.

I'm running a Pi 4 with the latest and updated Bookworm Lite OS and latest picframe.

One thing of note is that xrandr -q displays XWAYLAND0 instead of HDMI-1 - I did try to insert that into run_start.py script but it had no effect:

from picframe import start
import os
os.system("DISPLAY=:0 xrandr --output XWAYLAND0 --rotate left")
start.main()

[paddywwoof]

With the latest setup we use wlr-randr (for turning screen on and off) which should allow --mode and --transform arguments. See https://manpages.debian.org/testing/wlr-randr/wlr-randr.1.en.html

What happens if you run that on the command line while picframe is running?

PS something like

wlr-randr --output HDMI-A-1 --mode 1080x1920 --transform 270

[adammhaile]

What happens if you run that on the command line while picframe is running?

Closer!
So, when I run the following command (my display is 2560x1440) it does rotate the display:

wlr-randr --output HDMI-A-1 --mode 2560x1440 --transform 270

One thing to note is in your example you swapped the resolution values in the --mode option which wlr-randr does not respect, noting that it's an unsupported mode. It seems you only need the --transform part....

However... It doesn't quite actually work. I did this initially while picframe was running and the display rotated but picframe didn't get the message and the images looked all stretched.

So, I tried adding the command above to the run_start.py file just like in @sapnho 's original article and that did nothing. Both after restarting the picframe service as well as after a full reboot.

[paddywwoof]

@adammhaile I'm away at the moment so can't check up on this properly, but I seem to remember that I put a couple of variables into the configuration.yaml file to force the correct dimensions on rotated screens. Try setting display_w and display_h, see what that does.

Paddy

[adammhaile]

@paddywwoof Closer still!
So, if I set:
display_w=1440
display_h=2560

It does work but only if I run the following command AFTER the picframe service has started:
wlr-randr --output HDMI-A-1 --mode 2560x1440 --transform 270

It does nothing still when it's in run_start.py
I'm not familiar enough with the code to know where/how to make it run that command after the fact...

[adammhaile]

In the meantime, I added an option to rotate images on load, which should solve the problem at least for my specific needs:

#414

[paddywwoof]

Adam, that's a tidy solution to your problem. It might be even easier, and save adding niche code to picframe, to write a five line python script to just rotate images and save them as a one-off job after copying them to the raspberry pi.

I will look into the issue of when wlr-randr should be run to rotate the screen, once I'm home.

Paddy

[adammhaile]

write a five line python script to just rotate images and save them as a one-off job after copying them to the raspberry pi

I did consider it... probably what I'll actually end up doing. But I was curious how the code worked and thought maybe it might be generally useful beyond my use case.

[paddywwoof]

Yes definitely worth putting up anything that solves a problem for you as it could well help someone else down the line.

I'll test it all out when I'm home but I think I would try putting the wlr-randr line at the end of start_picframe.sh possibly after a pause to let picframe settle. Probably leave run_start.py unchanged.

[adammhaile]

@paddywwoof that was it!
With the following set in configuration.yml:

  display_w: 1440
  display_h: 2560

And the following start_picframe.sh:

#!/bin/bash
source /home/admin/venv_picframe/bin/activate # activate phyton virtual env
picframe &  #start picframe
sleep 5
wlr-randr --output HDMI-A-1 --mode 2560x1440 --transform 270

It works great. The sleep might be too long, but 5 works fine so I guess I'll leave it. Thanks so much for the help!

[sapnho]

Updated it in the article. Thanks, @adammhaile

[michaelpaar]

All you guys,

sapnho, adammhaile, paddywwoof, helgerbe - YOU ARE GEMS !

I made a digital picture frame from an old computer monitor, and used the instructions for Bookworm and a pi4, and had the crazy thing function, which I thought was amazing. Then I asked the question about 'portrait' mode. And lo and behold, you guys figured it out. I now can do either landscape or portrait. Amazing! Thank you! All of you!

And Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays.

You guys are great!

Thank You,
Mike

[blee-blee]

Hi,

I previously used the 2021 version of Picframe on a Pi4B board with the portrait setting described in the 2022 publication. In that version, the modifications for the portrait setting worked perfectly.

Recently, I updated Picframe to the December 2024 version on the same Pi4B board. However, despite applying the changes suggested by adammhaile (in the Nov 14 post) to configuration.yaml and start_picframe.sh, the images remain in landscape mode and do not rotate to portrait.

Has anyone verified these modifications on a Pi4B board with this version of Picframe? Are there any additional changes or steps required to enable portrait mode?

Thank you very much for your help!

[paddywwoof]

Hi, the latest system should work OK but it will need the latest OS with Wayland etc. Did you do that or just pip upgrade...

Paddy

[blee-blee]

Some additional info for reference:

1. SD card was prepared on Dec 25, 2024, loaded with Bookworm Lite (64-bit), on booting the Pi4B displays: raspberrypi 6.6.62+rpt-rpi-v8 Proof of concept #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.6.62-1+rpt1 (2024-11-25) aarch64. This version is dated after above discussions (Nov 15). Will the new OS version require some additional modifications?
2. The SD card with Picframe loaded was tested on a 4K monitor (display_w: 2160, display_h: 3840) and a 1080 monitor (display_w: 1080, display_h: 1920).
3. Observation: both monitors display portrait images, but without needed rotation. The image display starts at the top-left corner of the monitor. Since the image did not rotate, the image is placed at the left part of the monitor, and only the top portion of the image is displayed. [Note, without the modifications for portrait display, the portrait image will be scaled and be placed at the center of a landscape positioned monitor]
   For the 2021 version of the Picframe, images are rotated and the whole portrait image would be shown on a vertically placed monitor.

Thanks in advance for the comments.

[paddywwoof]

Hmm, sounds like the wlr-randr --output HDMI-A-1 --mode 2560x1440 --transform 270 in start_picframe.sh isn't working. What happens if you enter that on an SSH terminal?

[blee-blee]

Hi Paddy, thanks a lot. There was a problem in this line. I confirm the modification for the portrait display works for both 1080p monitor and 4k monitor, either 90-degree and 270-degree rotation, works on Pi4B board.
Again, thank you very much.

[paddywwoof]

Brilliant. Glad you sorted it out. Hope you continue enjoying the picture frame.

Paddy