Issues with touch control on the Orange Pi 5

Last Updated on May 1, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org

• For Raspberry Pi OS, touch support is not an issue, since there are examples available which show that it works
• For the Orange Pi 5, we do not know of any examples which show touch support, we defore define it as an issue that it is not there.
• The main thing we miss for the Orange Pi 5 is touch control.
• Touch control works well with Raspberry Pi’s as described here:

How to use a 5 inch touch display with a pen on a Raspberry Pi

• The Raspberry supports touch even on Fedora using the official Raspberry Pi 7 inch display:

Fedora supports touch with the Raspberry Pi 4, but only with the official 7 inch Raspberry Pi touch display which is connected over a flat cable

• As we have seen here, Ubuntu supports basic touch functionality on a x86 tablet as shown here:

Issues with Linux running on x86 processors & touch support

• And touch problems are also solved with the LattePanda with a special touch overlay which is connected to the motherboard as shown here:

Which are the latest Linux distributions for the LattePanda V1?

• but we have let go of LattePanda’s for reasons we described in our journal.
• In Fedora, touch screen for the Raspberry Pi is supported only for the official 7 inch touch display from Raspberry Pi, but not for other touch displays. There, touch control goes over a special flat cable adapter to the motherboard.
• Is this the easiest way to support touch, and so Fedora has choosen this pathway for it?
• If so, this pathway would also be available for the Orange Pi 5.
• There is an official 10 inch touch screen available from Orange for the Orange Pi 5 with flat cable:

http://www.orangepi.org/html/hardWare/otherAccessories/details/Orange-Pi-Touch-Screen-Pi5.html

• The Orange Pi screen with touch control and flat cable can also be found on Amazon and ebay.
• It does over flat cable connector to the motherboard of the Orange mother board.
• If this pathway over flat cable works easiest, does it work also for smaller screens with 7 or 5 inch?
• And can we also use a touch overlay, as it was solved with the LattePandas?
• There is also the option to install Ubuntu Touch on the Orange Pi 5 with a very sophisticated touch control.
• but for our needs, basic functionality for touch which is already integrated in Ubuntu for touch as shown here is sufficient:

Issues with Linux running on x86 processors & touch support

• We already have an official Ubuntu image for the Orange Pi 5 from Orange, why then install Ubuntu Touch on it?
• But we are asking the question. Is it the easiest way to support touch over a flat cable touch interface on the Orange Pi 5, as it was done in Fedora for the Raspberry Pi 4?
• If so, we have all the components, an official touch screen from Orange with flat cable.
• And we are sure that the documentation how to implement touch for Ubuntu can be found somewhere.
• If we look at what we reviewed, we can see that all components are there to implement a decent touch support for the Orange Pi 5 by selecting the appropriate components, to get a touch control which can compete with the touch control of Raspberry Pi’s.
• The question also remains, if touch over usb is not already implemented in for instance Ubuntu as it is in Raspberry Pi OS.
• This is woth testing before doing any further steps.

We think that touch support for the Orange Pi 5 for instance in Ubuntu is a small step for a developer, but something which is difficult for non-coders as we are. Especially if we lack of time to implement it. Therefore we welcome developers and YouTube video makers to implement touch support for the Orange Pi 5.