RuntimeError: Cannot determine SOC peripheral base address

[Timmof]

Hi. Awsome project

I'm having issues with a new install on a r-pi 5, and don't really know where to start.
Some background.

• New OS build of 64bit OS via the Raspberry Pi OS tool on Windows.
• Installed slowmovie via the install script
• Had an issue (sorry, didnt get a capture of the issue) , so went through the manual install steps, kicked off the script, and it came alive. Left the script running overnight, and Back to the Future titles screens were happily slowly appearing.
• Turned off the pi, then after restarting the frames didn't start refreshing. Ran sudo systemctl start slowmovie
• Rebooted, didnt seem to help, so ran systemctl status slowmovie
  Output:

$ systemctl status slowmovie
× slowmovie.service - Slow Movie Player Service
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/slowmovie.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2025-02-28 21:16:42 AEDT; 48s ago
Duration: 5.171s
Process: 613 ExecStart=/home/tim/SlowMovie/.SlowMovie/bin/python3 /home/tim/SlowMovie/slowmovie.py (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 613 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
CPU: 588ms

Feb 28 21:16:42 raspberrypi python3[613]: File "/home/tim/SlowMovie/.SlowMovie/lib/python3.11/site-packages/omni_epd/displays/waveshare_display.py", line 129, in prepare
Feb 28 21:16:42 raspberrypi python3[613]: self._device.init()
Feb 28 21:16:42 raspberrypi python3[613]: File "/home/tim/SlowMovie/.SlowMovie/lib/python3.11/site-packages/waveshare_epd/epd7in5_V2.py", line 87, in init
Feb 28 21:16:42 raspberrypi python3[613]: if (epdconfig.module_init() != 0):
Feb 28 21:16:42 raspberrypi python3[613]: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Feb 28 21:16:42 raspberrypi python3[613]: File "/home/tim/SlowMovie/.SlowMovie/lib/python3.11/site-packages/waveshare_epd/epdconfig.py", line 73, in module_init
Feb 28 21:16:42 raspberrypi python3[613]: self.GPIO.setup(self.RST_PIN, self.GPIO.OUT)
Feb 28 21:16:42 raspberrypi python3[613]: RuntimeError: Cannot determine SOC peripheral base address
Feb 28 21:16:42 raspberrypi systemd[1]: slowmovie.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Feb 28 21:16:42 raspberrypi systemd[1]: slowmovie.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Tried running python3 slowmovie.py
output:

INFO:slowmovie:Update interval: 120
INFO:slowmovie:Frame increment: 4
INFO:slowmovie:Resuming at frame 284
INFO:slowmovie:Playing 'BTTF1.mp4'
INFO:slowmovie:Video info: 166779 frames, 24.000fps, duration: 01:55:49
INFO:slowmovie:This video will take 57.81 day(s) to play.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/tim/SlowMovie/slowmovie.py", line 377, in
epd.prepare()
File "/home/tim/SlowMovie/.SlowMovie/lib/python3.11/site-packages/omni_epd/displays/waveshare_display.py", line 129, in prepare
self._device.init()
File "/home/tim/SlowMovie/.SlowMovie/lib/python3.11/site-packages/waveshare_epd/epd7in5_V2.py", line 87, in init
if (epdconfig.module_init() != 0):
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/home/tim/SlowMovie/.SlowMovie/lib/python3.11/site-packages/waveshare_epd/epdconfig.py", line 73, in module_init
self.GPIO.setup(self.RST_PIN, self.GPIO.OUT)
RuntimeError: Cannot determine SOC peripheral base address

I've reached the end of my chatgpt / google-ability!

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Tim

[Timmof]

hmmm. So hit chatgpt with the error, and suggested fix was:

Your issue is caused by incompatibility with the Raspberry Pi 5's BCM2712 SoC in the waveshare_epd library, which is used to control the e-paper display. The error is coming from epdconfig.py, which is failing when trying to access the GPIO.

Instructions were:

Fix: Update waveshare_epd Library
The official waveshare_epd library does not yet support the Raspberry Pi 5, but the community has patched it. You need to install an updated version:

1️⃣ Uninstall the old version

pip3 uninstall waveshare_epd
2️⃣ Install a patched version
Try installing a community-maintained fork:

pip3 install git+https://github.com/achrinza/waveshare-epd

Uninstalled OK ,but couldnt get the patched version installed (user password errors... )
Anyhoo, tried re-installing from the initial manual VSMP instructions with:

pip3 install git+https://github.com/robweber/omni-epd.git#egg=omni-epd

Seemed to completed OK.

Started up slowmovie, and it's alive again. Rebooted and the service is starting OK.

journalctl -u slowmovie --no-pager --lines=50
Returns:

-- Boot 3d7f56e659694ca296e0ad5749d8ee74 --
Feb 28 22:19:17 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started slowmovie.service - Slow Movie Player Service.
Feb 28 22:21:48 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Stopping slowmovie.service - Slow Movie Player Service...
Feb 28 22:21:48 raspberrypi systemd[1]: slowmovie.service: Deactivated successfully.
Feb 28 22:21:48 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Stopped slowmovie.service - Slow Movie Player Service.
Feb 28 22:21:48 raspberrypi systemd[1]: slowmovie.service: Consumed 7.606s CPU time.
-- Boot b01816f2a826495786c27f148a5c4af4 --
Feb 28 22:22:04 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started slowmovie.service - Slow Movie Player Service.

So not sure what's happened, but at this point looks fine. ¯_(ツ)_/¯