Re: Linux Display silly question

[Eric Bambach <eric@cisu.net>]

On Wednesday 23 March 2005 06:39 am, Mukund JB. wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I am very new to the GUI thing. I don't know how it works.
> I just have base Linux kernel running on an EBD9312 ARM Embedded Board
> with Linux Prompt working & no display.
>
> Now, I want to provide GUI support to the existing Linux. Now I just
> want to know are there any kernel modules that the kernel should have to
> support the GUI?
> The framebuffer driver is already active. I have NO X server on the
> machine because of memory constraints.

Sounds reasonable, especially for an embedded system. If you have at least 16M 
you can make it work though. Just try a lightweight window manager like 
enlightenment instead of kde or gnome, then you will have ALOT less 
compatibility problems.

> I have gone through a lot of Maillists which say I need to some GUI
> Library or tools like
>
>  GtkFB - does NOT use X11
>  Qt/Embedded - Direct Framebuffer access and so on.
>
> I have a very basic doubt here. I mean how I can launch the GUI
> Application when there is no UI (NO X server).
> I think there will be an intermediate desktop like thing which I am
> missing from where I can launch my application. Is there any thing like
> that for an ARM embedded system.

This has been discussed on the list before, (running GUI or GUI-like apps w/o 
X-server) just not on the ARM embedded architecture. You dont need any kernel 
modules per-se everything you want to accomplish is in userspace. As long as 
framebuffer is working don't touch the kernel ;)

It sounds like you are coming from the windows world if you think you need to 
click an icon to make a GUI work. I haven't used those libraries per-se, but 
as long as you provide mouse and toolkit support you can launch firefox (for 
example if it supports Qt/Embedded) just by typing it in. As the prompt you 
will type
my-app

and if you install the proper support libraries it will use the framebuffer 
for rendering instead of the X server. This all depends on the application 
though. Since the majority of "GUI" apps are designed for X, then you may run 
into odd compatibility problems when not running them in X.

You are on the right track, keep reading those mailing lists, install the 
libraries, find a compatible program and run it! 
user@embedded #my-app

> Please help to understand this?
>
> Regards,
> Mukund jampala

-- 
----------------------------------------
--EB

> All is fine except that I can reliably "oops" it simply by trying to read
> from /proc/apm (e.g. cat /proc/apm).
> oops output and ksymoops-2.3.4 output is attached.
> Is there anything else I can contribute?

The latitude and longtitude of the bios writers current position, and
a ballistic missile.

                --Alan Cox LKML-December 08,2000 

----------------------------------------
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs