Q Light Controller+ on the Raspberry Pi

User guide

Document revision: 1.5

The Raspberry Pi name and logo are property of the Raspberry Pi Foundation
(http://www.raspberrypi.org/)
1 Table of contents
1 Introduction.....................................................................................................3
2 Features...........................................................................................................3
3 Download & install on a SD card.....................................................................4
4 Raspberry Pi connections................................................................................5
5 Booting and remote access.............................................................................7
5.1 Web interface...............................................................................................7
5.1.1 QLC+ Virtual Console................................................................................8
5.1.2 QLC+ Simple Desk.....................................................................................8
5.1.3 QLC+ Configuration...................................................................................8
5.1.4 Raspberry Pi System Configuration...........................................................9
5.2 Direct access..............................................................................................10
5.3 SSH access.................................................................................................10
6 Date and time................................................................................................11
7 Locales...........................................................................................................11
8 Overscan.......................................................................................................11
9 Displays and touchscreens............................................................................12
9.1 HDMI displays.............................................................................................12
9.2 VGA Displays..............................................................................................12
9.3 SPI Displays................................................................................................13
9.4 Touchscreens..............................................................................................14
10 Manual installation......................................................................................16
11 Frequently Asked Questions........................................................................17
1 Introduction
Welcome to the QLC+ on the Raspberry Pi user guide !
A Raspberry Pi runs a Linux operating system, so please don't expect to
find all the tools and windows of a desktop system like Windows or OSX.
Also, please keep in mind that a Raspberry Pi cannot replace a PC,
especially when it comes to designing a light show.
This document is not meant to teach you how to use Linux. There's
plenty of information about that on the internet, as well as specific
information on how to setup and tweak a Raspberry Pi Linux system.
So please, before asking non QLC+ related questions, submit them to
Google and not to the QLC+ forum.

2 Features
QLC+ on Raspberry Pi is an optimized version that tries to get the best
out of a limited device while keeping the whole set of functionalities
offered on the desktop version.
Let's go directly into the techy details to let you understand what kind of
gear is powering QLC+:
• A Linux system based on Debian Jessie, with a 4.4 kernel and
optimized for the ARM platform
• Supports every Raspberry Pi model
Around 800MB of free RAM memory when QLC+ is running.
• Extremely tiny software image that fits into a SD card with a size of
just 1GB and still leaves around 200MB of free space
• Powered by Qt 5.6.2 directly running on OpenGL for fast 2D
rendering of the User Interface. Xorg is not present in the image.
• All the QLC+ plugins are available in this version, including OLA,
UART, GPIO and a SPI plugin to natively control RGB LED
Panels
• Boots in about 12 seconds on a RPi3 (15s on Pi2, 25s on Pi
Zero and 30s on Pi1). They start automatically in operate mode
and with web access activated. It is possible to define a project to
be loaded and started at boot time.
3 Download & install on a SD card
Starting to play with QLC+ on your Raspberry Pi requires a couple of
quick and easy steps.
1. Download the software image from the URL provided via email. You
need to use a download manager supporting file transfer resuming,
like the Chrome's Chrono Download Manager extension, jDownloader
or simply the 'wget' command.
2. Once you have downloaded the software, you will notice that it is
compressed into a 7z archive, to save you time and space. The 7z
format is extremely space-saving but it requires an additional tool to
be extracted.
Here's how to obtain it for different platforms:
◦ Windows: The official tool can be downloaded from here:
http://www.7-zip.org/
◦ Mac OSX: An unofficial tool can be downloaded from here:
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/19139/ez7z
◦ Linux: depending on your distribution, you might find a 7z
extractor already installed. On Ubuntu you need p7zip (sudo 
apt­get install p7zip­full). Once installed, it should
already be integrated with Ark, Nautilus, Gnome Archive
Manager, and so on.
Just double click the file if unsure. Once extracted, you should obtain a
file with a name like this: qlcplus_raspbian_jessie_20160424.img

3. To copy the .img file on your SD card, you obviously need a SD card at
least 1GB big. Please keep in mind that this operation will fully
erase your SD card, so backup your data first if there is any !
On Windows and OSX you need additional tools to write the software
on the SD card. In Linux you should already have everything you need.
Here's an extensive guide to help you through this operation. Please
follow the chapter named "Flashing the SD card using ...” for your
operating system.
http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup
Please be very careful in doing this operation as you can loose
important data of your computer !
4 Raspberry Pi connections
Depending on your needs, the Raspberry Pi itself might not be enough to
control your lights.
• [USB] If you're going to use USB devices, such as DMX adapters or MIDI-
USB controllers, there shouldn’t be problems with RPi 2 and 3, just
choose wisely the power adapter you're going to use. Depending on the
needs, 5V/1,5A or 5V/2A should be OK.
If your USB device is power demanding, it is then suggested to connect
a powered USB HUB that can be found for a few $/€ on Amazon or
eBay.
• [HDMI] If you're going to use QLC+ like on your PC, then you will need
all the above plus a TV set, connected to the HDMI connector (or the
analog one if present)
Please, don't expect to have the same performances of a PC, as the
Raspberry Pi is not a PC.
• [Ethernet] If you're going to use the ArtNet, E1.31 or OSC plugins, then
you just need to plug an ethernet cable to your Raspberry and make sure
a DHCP server (usually present in traditional routers) assigns a valid IP
address to it.
You can also use static IP addresses, for example if your hosts are
connected just with an ethernet hub or directly with a cross cable.
• [WiFi] WiFi connection is possible through USB dongles. Additional
tweaks are needed to make them work. In general, here's a list of verified
devices that are known to be working with the Raspberry Pi:
http://elinux.org/RPi_USB_Wi-Fi_Adapters
http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals
The 3 chipsets known to be working OK on the Raspberry Pi are:
Broadcom BCM43143, Realtek 8188 and Ralink 3070
Raspberry Pi 3, instead, has an onboard WiFi module already active and
ready to use at boot time.
• [SPI] If you're going to connect some LED strips or a RGB panel on the
SPI port, then you need to have a custom cable that you can't find on the
market. Usually it's very easy to solder it, but it all depends on how the
signals are mapped on your strips. The Raspberry PINs used to control a
SPI device are mapped as in picture A.
Basically you need to use PINs 19, 21, 23 and 25. At the moment, the
QLC+ SPI plugin doesn't control CE (Chip Enable) signals.
• [GPIO] If you're going to use the GPIO plugin, please be aware that not
all the RPi IO PINs can be used as GPIO. Refer to picture A to understand
the correct numbers you should configure in the QLC+ GPIO plugin.
 Note also that since GPIO numbering starts from 0 and QLC+ DMX
channels start from 1, there is a +1 delta you need to remember. For
example GPIO.18 will control DMX channel 19.
It should be possible to have more GPIO available by unloading the SPI
and I²C kernel modules but for now this is out of the scope of this guide.
Picture A
40 PIN IO
RPi 1 model B+, RPi 2 and 3
Name Pin # Name
3.3V 1 2 5V
I²C SDA.1 3 4 5V
I²C SCL.1 5 6 GND
1-Wire 7 8 UART Tx
GND 9 10 UART Rx
GPIO.17 11 12 GPIO.18
GPIO.27 13 14 GND
GPIO.22 15 16 GPIO.23
3.3V 17 18 GPIO.24
SPI MOSI 19 20 GND
SPI MISO 21 22 GPIO.25
SPI SCLK 23 24 SPI CE0
GND 25 26 SPI CE1
I²C SDA.0 27 27 I²C SCL.0
GPIO.5 29 30 GND
GPIO.6 31 32 GPIO.12
GPIO.13 33 34 GND
GPIO.19 35 36 GPIO.16
GPIO.26 37 38 GPIO.20
GND 39 40 GPIO.21

• [UART] If you purchased a BitWizard DMX interface, be aware that by

design the hardware is configured for DMX Input. To switch it to output
mode you need to add the following lines to the file
/etc/init.d/qlcplus, right before the line starting with
QLCPLUS_OPTS=”...”:

echo 18 > /sys/class/gpio/export

echo out > /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/direction
echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value

Those 3 commands will actually raise GPIO 18 and the BitWizard

interface will start emitting DMX signal.
Raspberry Pi 3 Note: add also the following to the config.txt file:
dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt
 5 Booting and remote access
Before booting your Raspberry Pi, make sure the following requirements are
met:
• SD Card with QLC+ software is correctly inserted in the Pi SD card slot
• Micro USB power plug is firmly plugged to the Pi
• If you're using network plugins, make sure the Ethernet cable is correctly
plugged in and the Pi can reach the target devices. If you're using a
wireless network, make sure your USB WiFi dongle is plugged in and
powered with enough current
• If you're using USB adapters, make sure they're correctly plugged to a
powered USB HUB, providing enough current to make them work
• if you're using a SPI connection, make sure the cable is plugged to the
right Pi PINs as described above

Once all the preliminary checks are done, you are ready to turn your Raspberry
Pi on.
After around 15 seconds, you will be able to reach it on the network.
By default, the QLC+ Raspberry software is configured to receive an IP from a
DHCP server. If the network cable is not connected, the boot sequence might
be slow, and in this case it is suggested to use a static IP address.
Hint: In general, to know which IP address your Raspberry is using, just
connect a mouse and a TV to it and when QLC+ is started, go to the
Input/Output panel and see which output the ArtNet and the E1.31 plugins are
displaying. Otherwise, just quit QLC+ and the current IP address should be
displayed at the end of the boot messages.
There are three ways to access the device: Web interface, direct access or SSH.

5.1 Web interface

By default, the QLC+ Raspberry software starts up with a web interface
enabled.
It can be accessed from any modern web browser running on any device, such
as a computer, a tablet or a smartphone. Your browser need to support the web
sockets technology to communicate with QLC+.
To access the QLC+ web interface simply connect to this address:
http://<IP address>:9999
Where <IP address> is the Raspberry Pi address. For example
http://192.168.0.100:9999
The web interface allows you to remotely control QLC+ and the Raspberry Pi
system without the need to connect a TV set, thus making the system light and
portable.
On a Raspberry Pi, the web interface consists in three pages:
• QLC+ Virtual Console
• QLC+ Configuration
• Raspberry Pi System Configuration

5.1.1 QLC+ Virtual Console

This page is displayed by default when accessing the web interface address
and it represents the QLC+ Virtual Console.
If a project is loaded, this page will display the widgets previously created with
QLC+, otherwise it will be just an empty page.
It is possible to load a project with the “Load project” button placed on the
top left corner of the page. A window will show up, allowing you to choose a file
from the device you're using to control the Raspberry Pi. The project file will be
transferred via web and loaded by QLC+ already in operate mode, thus ready
to be used immediately.
To access the QLC+ configuration page, just click on the “Configuration”
button.

5.1.2 QLC+ Simple Desk

Like in the QLC+ desktop version, the web interface exposes a simple desk
page to quickly control single channels. This can be particularly useful when
checking the DMX mapping of each fixture.
Please note that the web Simple Desk is not as powerful as the desktop
version. It is just a simplified tool to help users in some circumstances.

5.1.3 QLC+ Configuration

This page allows to remotely set the QLC+ configuration, divided in three
areas:
• Universes configuration: Allows to set the inputs, outputs, feedback,
profiles and passthrough mode for each QLC+ universe. This is basically
the same functionality of the QLC+ input/output panel.
Since a QLC+ project contains also the I/O information, most likely you
won't have to manually configure it on this page, but just check if
everything is correct.
• Audio configuration: Allows to select the audio devices used for audio
playback or audio input.
• User loaded fixtures: Allows to remotely load a custom fixture to
QLC+. When clicking on the “Load fixture” button, a window will show
up, allowing you to choose a file from the device you're using to control
the Raspberry Pi. The fixture file will be transferred via web and loaded
 by QLC+.
When adding new custom fixtures it is recommended to reload a project
or either reboot the Raspberry Pi
Once the configuration has been set, it is possible to go back to the web
interface main page by clicking on the “Back” button, placed at the top left
corner of the page.
When clicking on the “System” button, instead, it is possible to access the
Raspberry Pi system configuration page.

5.1.4 Raspberry Pi System Configuration

This page has been specifically designed for the Raspberry Pi and it's not
present on the desktop version of QLC+.
Here it is possible to do the following operations:
• Network configuration: A list of the available network interfaces will be
displayed here, showing how they are currently configured.
It is possible to configure wired and wireless interfaces by setting
automatic or manual IP address, subnet mask and default gateway.
In case of wireless networking, it is also possible to set the Access Point
name (SSID) and the access password. WPA-PSK is the only supported
method.
When done, click on the “Apply changes” button. A popup message will
inform you that the changes will take effect at the next boot.
• Project autostart: Here it is possible to set the currently loaded project
to automatically start up when QLC+ starts. This functionality, in
conjunction with the QLC+ “Function autostart” feature, will turn your
Raspberry Pi into a completely standalone device. For example if you set
a Chaser to play in loop mode, you can have a 24/7 light show very
easily.
When done, click on the “Apply changes” button. A popup message will
inform you that the changes will take effect at the next boot.
Once changes are applied, the currently loaded project will be copied into
a file in the /root/.qlcplus folder called “autostart.qxw”.
At the next boot, QLC+ will detect the presence of the file and will load it
automatically.
• Reboot: this button simply reboots the Raspberry Pi
• Shutdown: this button initiate the shutdown sequence
The “Back” button places at the top left corner of the page will lead you back
to the Virtual Console page.
 5.2 Direct access
If you connect a TV to your Raspberry Pi through an HDMI or analog cable, you
will notice that QLC+ is running in fullscreen, with the whole UI as in the
desktop version.
If you have a mouse and a keyboard plugged in, you can control QLC+ like the
desktop version, but with limited performances due to the reduced CPU power.
You can either purchase some HDMI+Touchscreen solutions available on the
market to control the Virtual Console just with your fingers.
It is not suggested to do project editing directly on the Raspberry Pi, but just
live control.
To gain control of the Raspberry Pi Linux system while QLC+ is running, just
click on the exit icon in the main view toolbar or hit the keys CTRL+F12 (to exit
from operate mode) and then CTRL+ALT+Backspace to obtain a shell access.
From there login as “pi” with password “raspberry”.

5.3 SSH access

This type of connection is for expert users. You don't need to worry about this if
you don't need to manually make changes to the QLC+ Raspberry software.
The ssh terminal command is normally present in Linux and OSX, while on
Windows you will need an extra tool like PuTTY: http://www.putty.org/
The SSH access is possible with the 'root' user like this:
ssh pi@<IP address>
Where <IP address> is the Raspberry Pi address. For example:
ssh [email protected]
The pi user password is: raspberry
Once the access is granted, you will have a standard Linux prompt. From here
you can do everything you want but it is required a bit of experience with the
Linux/Debian system.
QLC+ is a standard System V service following the Debian rules. You can
start/stop it by typing
sudo service qlcplus stop/start/restart

If you need the OLA server to be automatically started at boot just type:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure ola
 6 Date and time
Unlike a desktop computer, the Raspberry Pi doesn't have a backup battery, so
when you turn it off, all the system temporary information gets lost.
Most of them are detected during the boot process, but the system date and
time is strictly related to the network presence.
If no network is available, the system won't be able to set the correct date and
time, so if your QLC+ project uses time schedules, keep in mind that you will
need a network access. In this case “network access” means access to a NTP
server, which is normally available with an internet connection, so make sure
the Raspberry Pi has access to it.
If you're an advanced user and know how to set up a NTP server in your local
network, there will be no need for an internet access, but you'll have to
manually configure the Raspberry Pi to pick up the date and time from your
own server.

7 Locales
In Linux terms, “locales” are international codes (e.g. en_US, de_DE, es_ES, etc)
that define the system language.
To change the image system language, just type:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales
And follow the instructions on the screen.
You can also change the layout of your keyboard, if needed, by typing:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

8 Overscan
Depending on the TV set or touchscreen device connected to the Pi, it might be
useful to enable or disable the overscan feature.
When disabled, QLC+ will use every pixel of the display. When enabled, QLC+
will be displayed with a 5% black margin to better fit on some displays.
By default the overscan feature is enabled at boot.
To disable it, you need to manually modify the QLC+ startup script located at:
/etc/init.t/qlcplus
Look for a line starting with “QLCPLUS_OPTS” and remove the “--overscan”
option.
 9 Displays and touchscreens
Connecting a display with a touchscreen surface is possible in most of the
cases, and in the last years a wide variety of products spread out in the market.
However, this topic is not for beginners, so do not order random displays
from random chinese websites unless you know exactly what you're
doing and how those devices work !
Here, some information are provided to help users to work with displays and
touchscreens, but it is impossible to cover all the cases due to the wide variety
of devices mentioned above.
If the instructions here do not work for you, it's up to your Linux skills to adapt
them to your device and you are very welcome to share your findings in the
QLC+ Raspberry Pi forum.
If you're not familiar with editing files with Linux, kernel drivers, bash scripts
and environment variables, then this chapter is not for you. Sorry.

First of all, you should be aware that there are mainly 3 types of displays that
can be connected to the Raspberry Pi:
• HDMI + touchscreen
• VGA + touchscreen
• SPI + touchscreen
They use totally different connections and totally different drivers.
The display output connections and the touchscreen connections are now split
into separate paragraphs.

9.1 HDMI displays

With HDMI displays, it's like connecting a TV, so you should see the QLC+
interface out of the box. If you don't, then you most likely need to adjust the
RPi HDMI resolution, which doesn't depend on QLC+, but is plenty described
here: http://elinux.org/RPiconfig#Video_mode_options

9.2 VGA Displays

Since the RPi doesn't have a VGA connector, an adapter is required to make
traditional monitors to work with it.
Normally you can find quite cheap VGA-to-HDMI passive adapters on eBay or
similar.
Most likely you will have to adjust the screen resolution, with the same
instructions for a HDMI display. For example these parameters in the config.txt
file might work for you:
disable_overscan=1
hdmi_drive=1
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=16
config_hdmi_boost=4

9.3 SPI Displays

This is the most “embedded” way to connect a display to the Raspberry Pi, and
probably the one that needs most skills.
SPI is a serial interface, so display based on this protocol can't be very large.
You can find 1.8”, 2.5” and 3.5” sizes (and probably others)
The interesting thing is that they normally provide a single connector covering
the whole RPi IO connector and carrying the touchscreen data as well.
Thanks to the awesome FBTFT project (you are invited to read most of the wiki
pages) the support for SPI displays is already integrated in the mainline RPi
kernel.
There are several drivers, each with several configuration parameters, so here
the basic information is provided to give a rough idea of how a SPI display can
be used with QLC+.
Edit 'config.txt' file in the vfat partition and add this line at the end of the file:
dtoverlay=piscreen,speed=16000000,rotate=90
if 'piscreen' doesn't work for you (e.g. you don't see any image on the TFT, the
possible values are:
hy28a, hy28b, mz61581, piscreen, pitft28-resistive (former pitft),
rpi-display, tinylcd35

Also, you might want to play with the “speed” and the “rotate” parameters.
(optional) If you want to see the Linux boot messages, edit the 'cmdline.txt'
file and add this at the end of the kernel parameters:
fbcon=map:10
Boot the RPi, login via SSH and test the screen with this command:
cp /dev/urandom /dev/fb1
If this command shows random pixels on the screen, then it means you are
using the right kernel driver and Linux has been able to map the display on the
/dev/fb1 device. Congratulations !
Now, to finally redirect QLC+ to the fb1 device, you need to adjust its
command line options.
Edit the file /etc/init.d/qlcplus and look for a line starting with
QLCPLUS_OPTS=”...”.

Edit the parameters to have something like this:

QLCPLUS_OPTS="-platform linuxfb:fb=/dev/fb1 -plugin
evdevtouch:invertx --web –operate"
The “evdevtouch” plugin has several options you can try:
“invertx” “inverty” “rotate=90”
When you're done, restart the qlcplus service (or reboot the RPi) and you
should see QLC+ running on your display with touchscreen support !

9.4 Touchscreens
A touchscreen surface is nothing but a thin film that provides spatial and
pressure information. It can be resistive or capacitive and it can have different
types of connections.
The easiest way QLC+ can work with a touchscreen, is if Linux is able to map it
to a /dev/input/event device, so the preliminary test to do is to check (without
any mouse or keyboard plugged) if the following command produces any
result:
ls -l /dev/input/event*
If you don't get any result, then you will need to look up for additional
information concerning your specific touchscreen chipset/connection.

If, instead the touchscreen is mapped on some event device, you can test if it's
working properly by issuing the following command and then touching the
screen:
sudo apt-get install evtest
evtest /dev/input/event0
Obviously you need to replace “event0” with the name of the device actually
mapped by Linux and displayed by the ls command.

Some touchscreens provide a USB cable, and they most likely will work out of
the box, as Linux can map a USB input device like if it was a mouse or a
keyboard.
If they don't work, then they probably use a non conventional chipset. If the
chipset is recognized by Linux, then you could find some information by
googling the chipset name, otherwise you might need to give up and consider
it “not supported”.

If the touchscreen provides a RS232 serial connection, then you might

encounter hard times to make it work. One possible way could be using the
'tslib', which is supported by the Qt libraries and should support the serial
interface.
The parameters you can play with are an 'export' and a Qt specific command
line option. For example these commands might work for you:
export TSLIB_DEVICE=/dev/ttyS0
export TSLIB_FBDEVICE=/dev/fb0
qlcplus -plugin tslib --web –operate

The tslib has also some tools like “ts_calibrate” and “ts_test” to check if the
touchscreen is working. They can be installed with
sudo apt-get install libts-bin
If the previously mentioned “evtest” works for you, then you don't need to use
the tslib plugin, so please do not mix the two things.

In case you connected a SPI display, the touchscreen is probably using some
GPIO signals and the FBTFT kernel driver should make the work also to map a
/dev/input/event device.
You just need to tell the Qt libraries that you are using a touchscreen and not a
mouse with the option:
-plugin evdevtouch
(see paragraph 7.3 for more details)

Some more Qt-specific information to configure input devices are documented

here: http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/embedded-linux.html
However, it has already been discovered that sometimes that documentation is
not complete and you will need to dig into the Qt forums to learn more.
 10 Manual installation
This chapter is dedicated as well to users that are comfortable to move in a
Debian based Linux system and have the necessity to install QLC+ (and related
libraries) in a “custom image”.
By “custom image” it is here intended an ARM Linux system that works with
Debian packages (.deb) such as official Raspberry Pi Debian or Ubuntu images.
Please note that these are not generic instructions for every ARM board (e.g.
Banana Pi, ODROID-Cx, etc) so please let’s stick with the Raspberry Pi products.
The 2 packages that are required are: QLC+ (of course) and the Qt libraries.
The software provided is exactly the same that can be found pre-installed in
the official image, with no exception.
The provided Qt libraries have been cross compiled with several different QPA
plugins, such as EGLFS (the one used in the official image) and XCB (the one
needed to render a Qt application in a X server environment)
They have been built targeting the Raspberry Pi 2 architecture (ARMv7), thus
the limitation explained above.

First of all you need to cd into a directory that you can write. Usually cd $HOME
will work just fine.
Then you need to wget the QLC+ package with the URLs provided in the email
you received together with this document, and the Qt installation script:
wget <URL>/qlcplus_x.y.z_armhf.deb
wget http://www.qlcplus.org/downloads/raspberry/qt5/qt5-upgrade.sh
chmod +x qt5-upgrade.sh
In case, wget also the provided .md5 file to check the QLC+ package integrity.
Then install the required dependencies:
sudo apt-get install libts-0.0-0 libinput5
(Qt5 dependencies if you’re going to run QLC+ in a X server)
sudo apt-get install libxcb-xinerama0 libxcb-keysyms1 libxcb-
image0 libxcb-render-util0 libxcb-icccm4 libxcb-randr0
(QLC+ dependencies)
sudo apt-get install libmad0 libftdi1 libasound2 libfftw3-3
At last, install the 2 packages as follows:
sudo dpkg -i qlcplus_x.y.z_armhf.deb
sudo ./qt5-upgrade.sh yyyymmdd
The Qt package dates list can be found in the table at the end of this chapter.
Please note that the dpkg command can take several minutes, even on a RPi 3
cause of the large amount of files in the package. It also depends on the speed
of your SD card.
Now everything should be installed in the system, so you can check if QLC+
works like this (from a terminal):
- if you’re in a X desktop environment: qlcplus -platform xcb
- if you’re in a textual runlevel: qlcplus

To automatically start QLC+ at boot:

- if you’re in a textual runlevel, QLC+ will start by default thanks to a SysV init
script included in the debian package
- if you’re in a X desktop environment, you need to manually create an
autostart file, as follows:
nano .config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart
And add this line at the end:
@qlcplus -platform xcb --web --operate

Now save and reboot.

Qt package date Description
20160528 Qt 5.6.0 for ARMv7. Works on RPi2 and 3 only
20161007 Qt 5.6.2 ARM generic. Works on every RPi model
20170624 Qt 5.9.0 LTS for ARMv7. Works on RPi2 and 3 only
20170711 Qt 5.9.1 LTS ARM generic. Works on every RPi
model
20171007 Qt 5.9.2 LTS ARM generic. Works on every RPi
model

11 Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: What is the .md5 file I've been provided with ?
A: MD5 is a widely used technique to provide an integrity checksum of a
file, especially if it is big. It's a bit-to-bit hash number calculated on the
original file data.
When the file is downloaded, it is possible to recalculate the MD5 and
check if it is equal to the one calculated “offline”. It they don't match, it
means the file got corrupted during the download process.
In Linux and Mac OSX, a command line tool called “md5sum” is available
for the purpose. In Windows you need an extra tool like for example
WinMD5.

• Q: The user interface is slow on my Raspberry Pi

A: A Raspberry Pi is not a desktop PC ! The software image is quite not
designed for project editing, so it is suggested to use the software only
via web interface or use the RPi connected to a TV only for Virtual
 Console live operations

• Q: I need more space in my SD card for additional files/packages

A: From a SSH console, launch the raspi-config tool and select
7 Advanced Options
A1 Expand Filesystem

• Q: When I type apt-get install … I always get 'No package found'

A: That's because to save some SD card space, the cache of the apt
packages has been removed. To re-create it just type:
sudo apt-get update

• Q: I use my Raspberry with no ethernet cable (or with a static IP

address) and the boot is very slow
A: When switching the network configuration from dynamic to static IP, it
might happen that the DNS entries don't get updated correctly.

Edit the file

/etc/resolv.conf
and write a single nameserver entry like this
nameserver 127.0.0.1
Once done, save and reboot.

• Q: Every window of the user interface don't have a title bar, so I

cannot move them or in some cases close them
A: This is a very well known issue and unfortunately a proper solution
hasn't been found yet.
Most likely, a new image will be provided in the future with a light window
manager included.
If you can't live without this feature, you need to download a standard
Raspbian image (which includes an X Server and a window manager) and
build QLC+ from sources on your own. Please note that the performances
in this case can be slightly different from the official image.

• Q: How do I access the data of my USB pendrive ?

A: USB mass storage automount is possible with an extra package that
can be installed in this way:
 sudo apt-get install usbmount
Once installed, your pendrive can be accessed from one of the
/media/usbX folders

• Q: How do I display the kernel messages at boot ?

A: Just remove the ‘quiet’ option from the cmdline.txt file in the SD
card FAT partition
Document revisions
Revision Date Changes
1.0 May 29th, 2016 Initial revision, Jessie based image
1.1 September 3rd 2016 Improved manual installation. Added
BitWizard note for RPi 3
1.2 December 3rd 2016 Added Q&A about kernel boot messages
1.3 June 24th 2017 Added Qt 5.9.0 package code
Updated Q&A to expand filesystem
1.4 July 11th 2017 Added Qt 5.9.1 package code
1.5 October 7th 2017 Added Qt 5.9.2 package code