NanoPi NEO Air | fbtft missing

[troyane]

Creating a bug report/issue:

I'm writing this since I can't find any related issue and/or forum thread.

Execution of next command shows that fbtft module is missing. Isn't it an essential part of Linux for 4.14 kernel?

# modinfo fbtft ;  modinfo fbtft_device
modinfo: ERROR: Module fbtft not found.
modinfo: ERROR: Module fbtft_device not found.

Required Information:

• DietPi version | G_DIETPI_VERSION_CORE=6 G_DIETPI_VERSION_SUB=17 G_DIETPI_VERSION_RC=12 G_GITBRANCH=master G_GITOWNER=Fourdee
• Distro version | strech 9.6
• Kernel version | Linux DietPi 4.14.52 #19 SMP Thu Oct 11 11:33:51 CST 2018 armv7l GNU/Linux
• SBC device | NanoPi NEO Air (armv7l)
• Power supply used | 5V 1A RAVpower
• SDcard used | SanDisk ultra

[Fourdee]

@troyane

Hi,

Which device are you running?

[troyane]

Which device are you running?

@Fourdee Sorry I've missed that field. Already updated issue. Its NanoPi NEO Air.

[Fourdee]

@troyane

Appears the kernel module is missing from the official FriendlyARM pre-image we used.

Have you had any success with ARMbian by removing the network-manager package, setting up WiFi via /etc/network/interfaces, then running DietPi PREP?
https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/issues/2210#issuecomment-435687637

Also enable serial console flag after PREP is finished:
https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/issues/2210#issuecomment-437587520

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Additional REF:

• https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/issues/2100

[troyane]

@Fourdee your suspicions came true. On newly installed Armbian without network-manager and after successful execution of DietPi PREP there was fbtft, see screenshot attached:

---

Correct me if I'm wrong -- you've used nanopi-neo-air_sd_debian-nas-jessie_4.14_armhf_20180919 (from accessory-ROMs folder on official Google Drive) since it was only one officially supported Debian-based (not Ubuntu-based) distro.

Don't you think that it will be much better/easier to use Armbian distro as a base instead?

[Fourdee]

@troyane

Don't you think that it will be much better/easier to use Armbian distro as a base instead?

Yes, we previously offered ARMbian based images for most of our SBC's in the past. However, things did not work out between our projects.

Maybe in the future that might change, but for now we only use official FriendlyARM pre-images (+kernel).

[MichaIng]

@troyane
A new image is based on Armbian again and should solve the issue: https://dietpi.com/downloads/testing/DietPi_NanoPiNEOAir-ARMv7-Buster.7z

[MichaIng]

Module is available on the new image, I mark this as closed.