Building the Display Firmware

This page is for compiling the display firmware from source — for the ready-made images and everything else about the display, start at the Display Add-On Module page.

The two display panels need different builds:

If you flash the wrong one, the backlight comes on but the panel stays blank or shows scrambled output — harmless, just reflash.

Build from source

You need a Zephyr workspace first — see Zephyr RTOS for west init and west update.

The repo ships a script per panel, which is the recommended route:

./scripts/make_ili9488.sh     # white panel
./scripts/make_st7796.sh      # black panel
./scripts/clean.sh            # clean build

Each wraps a single west build, if you’d rather call it directly:

# ILI9488 (white)
west build -b healthypi5 app 
  -DEXTRA_CONF_FILE='overlay-display-ili9488.conf;overlay-logger-sd.conf' 
  -DEXTRA_DTC_OVERLAY_FILE='healthypi5_rp2040_display_ili9488.overlay'

# ST7796 (black)
west build -b healthypi5 app 
  -DEXTRA_CONF_FILE='overlay-display-st7796.conf;overlay-logger-sd.conf' 
  -DEXTRA_DTC_OVERLAY_FILE='healthypi5_rp2040_display_st7796.overlay'

The artefact lands at build/zephyr/zephyr.uf2. Flash it with west flash (Debug Probe) or by drag-and-drop.

Building without the display

Two additional scripts skip the graphics stack entirely — useful when you want a smaller image, faster builds, or a headless board:

./scripts/make_nolvgl.sh      # display driver, no LVGL UI
./scripts/make_minimal.sh     # minimal build

Next

• Display Add-On Module — pre-built images, panel identification, and using the display.
• Zephyr RTOS — setting up the workspace this page builds in.