Screen orientation

[Llorean]

The Gigabeat original firmware probably does it in software. This isn't implemented in software at all in Rockbox, except in the Mpegplayer plugin.

[Nate!]

oh okay, so at this point it should be a feature request for implementation in software.  Thanks.

[axlgreasetires]

yeah it would be sweet to be able to rotate the screen.

Thats all i have to say.

[johnson4]

I just swithed to Rockbox and screen orientation was a major thing I was hoping to have control over on my gigabeat. I'd love to see it happen

[Nate!]

Check out this patch: FS# 6688.

Umm ... please ignore the two idiotic posts by that Nathan Hale guy.    

It seems to work nicely.  You just can't do it on the fly, but it's getting there.

[markun]

Why would you want to change the rotation on the fly?

[Mad Cow]

Why would you want to change the rotation on the fly?

How about if you want to switch between 5G ipod and normal gigabeat themes? Or because some plugins look and work much better with a landscape-oriented screen. Take chopper and brickmania for example, there's about 1/3rd of the screen not being used on the gigabeat, and chopper looks bad because there's so much space above and below your chopper.

[markun]

If plugins don't look good in portraid mode they should be rotated I think. Don't see why you want to do it on the fly there. A rotation option for the menu, WPS and filebrowser might be nice yes.

[johnson4]

Ya a menu option would be great, I think that would also lead the way for cradle modes. AKA switching to portrait when the gigabeat is in the cradle.

It was mentioned in Flyspray, but is anyone else getting the messy screen when you try plugins that already switch screen orientation? Like mpegplayer, pacbox and doom.
Interesting tho, when in landscape mode Doom has the menu option"Would you like to rotate 90'?"
(I don't see that option in portrait mode) but it doesn't change anything whether it's set to "yes"or "no"

[mannequin]

It was mentioned in Flyspray, but is anyone else getting the messy screen when you try plugins that already switch screen orientation?

yes, they are all "broken" with the landscape patch applied.

[somedood]

Simple (hopefully not stupid) question [I have looked elsewhere and didn't find the answer]: Do you have to be a developer to be able to install this rotating screen patch on the gigabeat? Or are there  instructions available on how to implement it?


Thanks

[Nate!]

Implementing the patch is just like working with any other patch.  

To be able to choose at startup whether you boot with Landscape or Portrait, you either need to be a developer or use an old outdated bootloader and subsequent outdated build.  

If you are a developer, you could modify the latest bootloader to choose screen orientation.

If you have questions about working with patches, there are a few wiki pages available.  You'll need to create a development environment for patching and compiling.  Believe me, if you can follow instructions, it's easier than it sounds.  If you have questions on a particular step, pop in here and someone will help you out.

If you don't think you can handle it, there are unsupported builds in the appropriate thread that you can use.  Acutally the only one that is available for the Gigabeats and work with the latest bootloader is MadCow's build.

I don't think his build has the rotation patch though.  I really like that patch but it breaks any plugin that is natively landscape.  (ie. MpegPlayer and Doom)