How-To: Change OS Screen Orientation via /system/build.prop

[diego.tori]

So after a bit of trial and error, I was able to figure out how to change the OS screen orientation when booted. Long story short, this was always an issue when running Android on the Raspberry Pi Official 7" Touchscreen, since it was always appearing upside down. Seeing that it's not like Raspberry PI, there's no config file to edit which fixes it. With that said here's how you can change it through build.prop (performed on v13.11.0.5):

First, adb connect to your board, then run adb as root, connect to it again, remount the board's filesystem, then pull the current /system/build.prop to the current directory (or wherever you want to save it):

Code:

adb connect [ip address of tinkerboard]
adb root
adb connect [ip address of tinkerboard]
adb remount
adb pull /system/build.prop .

Then, edit the pulled build.prop file with a text editor. You want to focus on this particular property:

Code:

ro.sf.hwrotation=0

Change it to:

Code:

# other possible values:
# 0 = Landscape, 90 = Portrait, 180 = Reverse Landscape, 270 = Reverse Portrait
ro.sf.hwrotation=180

Save the modified build.prop file, then push it back to the Tinker Board and reboot the device:

Code:

adb push build.prop /system
adb reboot

Note that the "Rockchip Kernel" boot splash will still be upside down. This is normal. Once the Android logo is displayed during boot, it will show the orientation from the newly pushed build.prop file. Hope everyone finds this useful when using the Tinker Board with existing RPI hardware.