# How to get xdirectfb working

## gsfgf

How to get xdirectfb working

I finally got xdirectfb working on my laptop and everything feels so much smoother.  

1. Kernel Stuff

First you need to build in framebuffer support to the kernel.

Go to Console drivers > Framebuffer Support

enable 

```

[*]   Support for frame buffer devices (EXPERIMENTAL)

[*]   VESA VGA graphics console 

```

You can also select the framebuffer driver for your video card.  I haven't tried it w/ the card specific module since ny NeoMagic card isn't an accelerator or anything special.  I'll try later and update.  However you may wat to try it w/ just vesa vga enabled so you have fewer things to go wrong.

Then rebuild the kernel.

1.1 GRUB confguration

edit menu.lst to add  vga=791as a kernel option as in:

```

title=Gentoo 2.4.19

root (hd0,0)

kernel /boot/bzImage.2.4.19 root=/dev/hda3 vga=791

```

791 corresponds to 1024x768x16bit color in grub.  

The otehr modes are as follows:

```

color  depth     | 640x480  800x600  1024x768 1280x1024

256        (8bit)|  769      771       773      775

32000     (15bit)|  784      787       790      793

65000     (16bit)|  785      788       791      794

16.7 Mil. (24bit)|  786      789       792      795
```

and in lilo

```

Colours   640x400 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1152x864 1280x1024 1600x1200

--------+--------------------------------------------------------------

 4 bits  |    ?       ?     0x302      ?        ?        ?         ?

 8 bits  |  0x300   0x301   0x303    0x305    0x161    0x307     0x31C

15 bits |    ?     0x310   0x313    0x316    0x162    0x319     0x31D

16 bits |    ?     0x311   0x314    0x317    0x163    0x31A     0x31E

24 bits |    ?     0x312   0x315    0x318      ?      0x31B     0x31F

32 bits |    ?       ?       ?        ?      0x164      ?
```

2. Emerging

At this point go ahead and add the fbcon USE var.  

then 

```

# ACCEPT_HEYWORDS="~x86" emerge xdirectfb

```

I'm not sure what otehr apps need to be rebuilt with the fbcon var.  I rebuilt fluxbox but that may have not been necessary.  All my other apps worked fine.

3. Config files

the xdirectfb server reads xinit like the normal x server. However it also has its own config file, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/dfbserverrc.

Edit this file so it reads

```

#!/bin/bash

exec /usr/X11R6/bin/XDirectFB -enableRoot

```

You will start all other apps in xinit as usual.  

If x starts in an undesired resolution edit /etc/fb.modes.

You now have a working x framebuffer server.

4. Other stuff

Howto that isn't good for much more then lilo video modes: http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Framebuffer-HOWTO.html

The thread that got me in buisness: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=13912&highlight=xdirectfb

And for grub video modes: http://sdb.suselinux.hu/en/sdb/html/wessels_easy_fbdev.html

If anyone has experiance w/ the framebuffer, check out this thread: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=31562&highlight=

This is where i ask questiosn that i have yet to resolve and will add to this thread as soon as they are resolved.  Most of these pertain to using the framebuffer on a high-end system.

----------

## VisualPhoenix

Thank Aries it works!!

----------

## CoronaLover

Also add "video=vesa:mtrr,ywrap" to menu.lst's kernel line.

This will speed up things a little.

----------

## heijs

What does ywrap do exactly?

----------

## CoronaLover

Taken from /usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/vesafb.txt :

 *Quote:*   

> ypan    enable display panning using the VESA protected mode 
> 
>         interface.  The visible screen is just a window of the
> 
>         video memory, console scrolling is done by changing the
> ...

 

----------

## heijs

OK, thanks for the info, but it wasn't applicable to me.

I've got the XDirectFB running now on a Matrox G400 card (using matrox fb).

It looks really great and feels quite fast   :Very Happy: 

----------

## heijs

Here is a screenshot of Gnome 2.2 running on the matrox fb, with an opened phoenix!

http://rugth1.phys.rug.nl/~heijs/screenshot.png

----------

## Kumba

Curious, is XDirectFB faster than X-Windows?  Any any idea if this will work on an UltraSPARC system running ATI Hardware offhand?

--Kumba

----------

## yngwin

I got it sorta working with matroxfb. Mozilla looks fine, but I get strange coloured dots in the corners, the cursor is vague and when I right-click I don't get the menu. I'm using freshly emerged XFree 4.2.99.4, XDirectFB and waimea. I'm switching back to normal X for now, but I'd like to get this working properly. I love the easy config, just comment out the unwanted resolutions in /etc/fb.modes... (The harder part is of course the kernel and grub configs, for those not used to that.)

----------

## watersb

I tried using the framebuffer (mostly for neato console stuff), but this woke up my nVidia card just enough to mess up power management on my laptop.

That is, the machine would not suspend if I used fb console.

The lack of power management for nVidia's closed-source X drivers is well-known, but I was not aware of this problem using the (text, not X) fb console in high-resolution modes.

At the moment, I just use the XFree "nv" driver and power management is fine (well, with the most recent Dell BIOS it's somewhat messy, but that's another story... anyhow, the laptop will go to sleep when I close it).

Anyone else have any luck with nVidia cards and fb?

Anyone else using nVidia cards with XDirectFB? How about power management?

----------

## gsfgf

 *watersb wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Anyone else have any luck with nVidia cards and fb?
> 
> Anyone else using nVidia cards with XDirectFB? How about power management?

 

I can run Xdirectfb on my GF3.  It runs fine, but unaccelerated.  I'm still using X on that box b/c i use dual displays and need accelerated drivers.

----------

## TheJabberwokk

When I run X I get garbage:

I set on my grub settings to:

```
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 idebus=69 hdd=ide-scsi pci=bios,biosirq vga=792 video=vesa:mtrr,ywrap
```

when I run fbset I get this:

```
acohen@jabberwokk acohen $ fbset

mode "1024x768-76"

    # D: 78.653 MHz, H: 59.949 kHz, V: 75.694 Hz

    geometry 1024 768 1024 10922 24

    timings 12714 128 32 16 4 128 4

    rgba 8/16,8/8,8/0,0/0

endmode

```

is there anyway to get 32 bit color and what do I set my timings to?

----------

## gsfgf

 *TheJabberwokk wrote:*   

> is there anyway to get 32 bit color and what do I set my timings to?

 

in X, all you can have is 24 bit.  It's the same as 23bit, but not quite or some such.  As long as you have 24bit you're running max colors.

----------

## Lockup

finally got off my arse and made xdfb work  :Smile: 

few problems though:

-as im typing this, it takes about 10 seconds per char i type to appear in anything(moz, eterm, etc)

-eterm is very slow at displaying stuff, im not sure if 2 transparancies together might be the prob(eterm trans + xdfb trans...)

-the cursor is all blurry

-the cursor leaves a black trail behind it, as if i was selecting stuff in a term(i mean for the "style" of the black crap it leaves....vertical rectangles the size of an eterm char buffer)

questions:

-could i get hardware accel in xdfb if i use the nvidia/riva fb modules instead of the vesa?(using vesa at the mo)

(mostly for games such as q2 etc)

thats all for now, thanks for the info  :Wink: 

----------

## Swishy

 *gsfgf wrote:*   

>  *watersb wrote:*   
> 
> Anyone else have any luck with nVidia cards and fb?
> 
> Anyone else using nVidia cards with XDirectFB? How about power management? 
> ...

 

have you tried using rivafb and adding video=riva:foo instead of video=vesa:foo ???

Cheers

Dale.

----------

## mr_andy_main

what do I have to do to get Xdirectfb to start in place of X on boot.  Should it be in the xdm script or something as xdm is in my default runlevel?  I have passed the video=foo option to my kernel.

thanks, andy.

----------

## puddpunk

Does anyone know if this works with KDE??

----------

## gsfgf

 *puddpunk wrote:*   

> Does anyone know if this works with KDE??

 

I don't use KDE, but there is absolutely no reason why it shouldn't.

----------

## CoronaLover

IIRC, KDE wont work but QT only apps work great.

----------

## puddpunk

Well, I messed with this for a while, and this is what I came up with:

I started using fluxbox, very nice  :Smile:  Then I tried loading up KDE. KSplash crashed immediately, but thats ok, it doesn't do jack schitt. Then KWin, and KMix crashed as well.

The problem with KWin was that I had an OpenGL enhanced screensaver selected, and the XDirectFB X server didn't have any GLX extentions on it (yes, that means you can't play games, even under say a rive accelerated FB until somebody comes out with some GLX extentions for XDirectFB). So I changed the screensaver, and KWin loaded fine. Everything looked fine, except most of the icons wouldn't load (I couldn't decided if the unloaded ones were PNG, SVG or some other type).

I couldn't fix KMix or KSplash, but the initial experiance with KDE & XDirectFB was very impressive. Smooth, Fast and very responsive. XFree is a bit of a slouch!

----------

## Lockup

what about my cursor problem though? *raises fist*  :Razz: 

----------

## hhaamu

I think I have it working, but it only gives me a 1600x1200 blue screen (no, not of death, but normal blue) with no window manager. How do I start one (which file do I put it in)?

EDIT: Never mind, I just had to wait a bit for my .xinitrc to execute

----------

## Lockup

hmm my mouse stopped being weird after i tested with rivafb instead of vesa.. now i have a strange prob though.... the background screen is just weirdly distorted(kinda like when TV cable goes out...), and enlightenment menus make the screen "reset" over and over again

hrm...

----------

## rb338

I have XDirectFB running perfectly now, but is there any (easy?) way to get new modelines?

I'm currently using 1280x1024 @ 77 Hz, but I really want it at 85 Hz because 77 Hz is giving me headaches.

I got this one from fbset:

mode "1280x1024-77"

    # D: 131.096 MHz, H: 80.328 kHz, V: 76.649 Hz

    geometry 1280 1024 1280 1024 16

    timings 7628 160 32 16 4 160 4

    rgba 5/11,6/5,5/0,0/0

endmode

Which is 77 Hz  :Sad: 

----------

## rb338

Found some things, I'm rather clueless at the moment.

I'm still trying to get 1280x1024 at 85Hz, with no luck.

My kernel bootline looks like this now:

 kernel /bzImage root=/dev/hda10 video=vesa:1280x1024-16@85,mtrr,ywrap hdb=ide-scsi      initrd=/initrd

As you see, I don't have a vga=foo line. I had it before though, but while I was searching for answers I read that the framebuffer doesn't use it and thus it isn't needed. If this is correct, I don't know.

What I do know is that the video=foo line appears to be completely ignored. My framebuffer is now on 640x480 4bit 60Hz.

I've tried both vesa and riva framebuffer drivers, no luck. I tried entering a default mode from fb.modes, no luck. I tried adding my own fb.modes entry by converting a (perfectly working) XFree86 modeline, no luck  :Sad: 

What could be the problem here?

The modeline from XFree86 is:

Modeline "test"  157.5  1280 1344 1504 1728  1024 1025 1028 1072 +HSync +VSync

With 'modeline2fb -d 16' I get:

mode "test"

  geometry   1280 1024   1280 38   16

  timings    6349   224 64   44 1   160 3

  hsync high

  vsync high

endmode

I might be wrong, but I tried using this mode by using:

video=riva:test,mtrr,ywrap (also tried vesa instead of riva)

Help?  :Smile: 

----------

## Ivion

Well, everything is working fine here with XDirectFB...really nice. ^_^

But now I want to run mplayer in XDirectFB, just like mplayer when you use XFree86 (so just type the command in a term and it 'pops' up). I've tried different kinds of -vo settings, tough none of them worked (or they screwed up my XDirectFB in a way, or they returned no image or they crashed). Has anyone have experience with this? Because I'dd really like to get it working.  :Very Happy: 

Or is the speed when playing videos with(in) XDirectFB not suffecient? If that's the case, can some of you offer a different solution?

Many Thanks.  :Smile: 

----------

## brazilian_joe

I made it work all right, but the mouse crazes out, just like it did on Xfree before I configured it correctly.

It uses IMPS/2 on Xfree, I thought XdirectFB would use that setting, but it is not.

Where do i configure it? Or the drivers simply dont exist?

----------

## paramthegreat

hi all,

i have a three button mouse but not a wheel mouse. how can i change the transparency of any application dynamically. i do not want that i preset all the applications to a specific transparency level.

thanx,

param.

----------

## nerdbert

 *Lockup wrote:*   

> 
> 
> -the cursor leaves a black trail behind it, as if i was selecting stuff in a term(i mean for the "style" of the black crap it leaves....vertical rectangles the size of an eterm char buffer)
> 
> 

 

had a similar problem - xdirectfb doesn't deactivate gpm, so I had to do it manually:

```

/etc/init.d/gpm stop

```

----------

## snutte

This is kinda nice.  :Very Happy: 

----------

## dantrevino

Ok, it works great.  I have Gnome2 running under directxfb.  Now how do I make my menus translucent?

----------

## Ian

does directxfb support dual heading, similar to xinerama from xfree?

the reason i ask is that it's the only reason keeping me from trying directxfb, because i finally got xinerama working (not perfectly, but good enough) and i don't know if i can go back to just one monitor :p (oh, the horror!).  if it doesn't have dual monitor support, would anyone know when it's planned to be added?

----------

## dantrevino

 *Ian wrote:*   

> does directxfb support dual heading, similar to xinerama from xfree?
> 
> the reason i ask is that it's the only reason keeping me from trying directxfb, because i finally got xinerama working (not perfectly, but good enough) and i don't know if i can go back to just one monitor :p (oh, the horror!).  if it doesn't have dual monitor support, would anyone know when it's planned to be added?

 

I dont know much about the project, but according to this (http://www.directfb.org/download/DirectFB/NEWS) they "Enabled acceleration for the second head of a dual head Matrox card." as of version 0.9.13.  So my guess is yes.  But there is a mailing list ( http://www.directfb.org/mailinglists.xml )  where they might be able to answer better.  And even archives of that list ( http://www.directfb.org/mailinglists/directfb-users/ ).

dan

----------

## lurid

Ok, I got this working no problem.  Well ok, so there is one problem.  Framebuffer refresh rates suck is pretty much the conclution I'm comming to.  I was using rivafb first and I can't seem to get it above 640x480..  some reading told me its not able to go higher than that.  Alright, fine..  back to vesa.  Well, evidently vesa can't have a refresh higher than 60hz for 1280x1024 (read it somewhere in the bootsplash thread).  Right.  So the framebuffer, for any decent res, makes my eyes fall out.  Really nice idea in theroy, but having transulcent windows isn't worth making my eyeballs fall out.  No, seriously.  My eyes have been aching for the last 30 minutes.  They are going to fall out.

----------

## Ian

 *dantrevino wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I dont know much about the project, but according to this (http://www.directfb.org/download/DirectFB/NEWS) they "Enabled acceleration for the second head of a dual head Matrox card." as of version 0.9.13.  So my guess is yes.  But there is a mailing list ( http://www.directfb.org/mailinglists.xml )  where they might be able to answer better.  And even archives of that list ( http://www.directfb.org/mailinglists/directfb-users/ ).
> 
> dan

 

well, i have an art radeon 8500, and i do remember seeing that ati cards were supported, so maybe i'll get lucky and it'll work.  unfortunately, gnome stopped working for me a few days ago, so i need to get that working first...

----------

## dantrevino

Two things:

1. Everything works great, but my mouse moves too slow for me.  I'm running GNOME, and maxed out the mouse accel control to no avail.  How can I accelerate my mouse movement?

2.  How can I change to another console once I've started GNOME?  CTRL-ALT-Fx doesnt work.

dan

----------

## fimblo

Hmm. I've read all about xdirectfb, it sounds great, and the screenshots are incredible. But when I follow the instructions in the beginning of this thread, and get to emerging xdirectfb, I get:

```
waoh xdirectfb# ACCEPT_HEYWORDS="~x86" emerge xdirectfb-1.0_rc4.ebuild 

Calculating dependencies \

!!! all ebuilds that could satisfy ">=dev-libs/DirectFB-0.9.17" have been masked.

!!!    (dependency required by "x11-base/xdirectfb-1.0_rc4" [ebuild])

!!! Error calculating dependancies. Please correct.

```

what can I do about this?

----------

## esapersona

Will this fb stuff still work with the opengl stuff? (QuakeIII, Chromium, etc..)

----------

## lurid

 *fimblo wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ```
> waoh xdirectfb# ACCEPT_HEYWORDS="~x86" emerge xdirectfb-1.0_rc4.ebuild 
> 
> ...

 

Try it again, and this time spell KEYWORDS correctly.   :Wink: 

----------

## fimblo

oh gawd. doh!!!

*bonks himself on the head*

----------

## fimblo

hullo  :Smile:  prolly another stupid question, here goes:

I compiled xdirectfb, and when I want to start it, I type XDirectFB and I get this blue screen like hhaamu discovered. he solved the problem by waiting a while (at least thats what it seemed like he did). I've waited like 30 seconds or so, and still nothing.

I've passed vga=828 video=vesa:mtrr,ywrap to the kernel (828 looks best on my system, I've got a s3 supersavage (I've got an IBM t23 laptop)).

I've got an .xinitrc file, with my windowmanager in it (waimea).

How do I start my windowmanager?

EDIT: doh, I ran startxdfb and it worked after a while:)

Another question- I've seen some people talk of other frameuffers, other than vesafb (like rivafb etc). I've also seen (in other forums) people write video=savagefb. the question is- does anyone with a savage card know what flags to pass to the kernel so that it maximizes the hardware acceleration of my video card?

cheers!

----------

## MADcow

need i recompile all of my apps that have been compiled for X?

----------

## fimblo

nope, I just plugged in my mouse and started up startxdfb.

----------

## CoronaLover

tips for NVIDIA users:

1. user rivafb

2. make sure you have "desktop-buffer-mode=backsystem" in your .directfbrc this will speed up XDirectFB ALLOT!

----------

## nerdbert

 *CoronaLover wrote:*   

> tips for NVIDIA users:
> 
> 1. user rivafb
> 
> 2. make sure you have "desktop-buffer-mode=backsystem" in your .directfbrc this will speed up XDirectFB ALLOT!

 

good hint, but rivafb crashes my computer (I'm using a GF3)

----------

## MADcow

ok, the clear windows are cool, but it sucks with enlightenment; none of the effects work (E effects). my background is replaced by this lame solid blue thing, i cant click on my e desktop for my menu, i only have one virtual desktop, and tuxracer is slow ass ass....

im back to xfree...

----------

## Frozenwings

So no 3d acceleration? It's one thing that keeps me from trying this...

----------

## nerdbert

 *MADcow wrote:*   

> ok, the clear windows are cool, but it sucks with enlightenment; none of the effects work (E effects). my background is replaced by this lame solid blue thing, i cant click on my e desktop for my menu, i only have one virtual desktop, and tuxracer is slow ass ass....
> 
> im back to xfree...

 

didn't know this is specific to enlightenment (which I use), but it definately sucks.

However, this stuff seems to be quite experimental right now and I don't want to blame the guys behind it at this stage of the development.

----------

## discomfitor

 *Quote:*   

> tips for NVIDIA users:
> 
> 1. user rivafb 

 

how do you use rivafb?  I've tried enabling it as various things in the kernel, but I can't seem to get my grub lines correct.

----------

## CoronaLover

i just added video=rivafb:1024x768-16@85 , this is on 2.5.70 kernel. on 2.4 I think you should replace rivafb with riva

----------

## discomfitor

is this if you have it enabled in the kernel or as a module?

also, this is slightly off topic, but can you get bootsplash on the dev-kernel?  I tried but couldn't figure out which option was needed

----------

## CoronaLover

built in.

----------

## Halanegri

 *CoronaLover wrote:*   

> tips for NVIDIA users:
> 
> 2. make sure you have "desktop-buffer-mode=backsystem" in your .directfbrc this will speed up XDirectFB ALLOT!

 

Where EXACTLY ?

I added this to my ~/.dfbserverrc file, but it didn't change anything(still slow as hell), and if i add it to the end of the "/usr/X11R6/bin/XDirectFB..." line, I get an error saying that "desktop-buffer-mode=backsystem" is an invalid option.

----------

## CoronaLover

~/.dfbserverrc ?? huh?

add it to ~/.directfbrc

----------

## dberkholz

 *CoronaLover wrote:*   

> ~/.dfbserverrc ?? huh?
> 
> add it to ~/.directfbrc

 

 */usr/X11R6/bin/startxdfb wrote:*   

> ...
> 
> userserverrc=$HOME/.dfbserverrc
> 
> ...

 While this seems logical at first glance, CoronaLover points out below that it's not XDirectFB that needs the setting, but rather DirectFB itself.Last edited by dberkholz on Thu Jun 19, 2003 2:41 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## CoronaLover

that has nothing to do with it. add it to .directfbrc, the DirectFB backend reads that file.

----------

## Exigentsky

wll waht are they?

----------

## CoronaLover

man directfbrc   :Wink: 

----------

## hakan

I emergerd xdirectfb rc4 and have no executeable XDirectFB!?  :Shocked: 

I emerge again, maybe it's there then.

Edit:

After the second emerge the XDirectFB executeable was build. I have no idea why it wasn't build.

Is it possible to save which application should be transparent?

Is it possible to set the refresh rate?

----------

## CoronaLover

its impossible to save which application should be transparent.

I think it uses the highest resolution or if you use vesafb in uses the resolution and refresh rate you booted with, again man directfbrc explains how to change the resolution.

----------

## Trejkaz

 *Quote:*   

> I emergerd xdirectfb rc4 and have no executeable XDirectFB!?

 

Me too.

Actually I just emerged again this morning and it still isn't there.

On a little further investigation:

```

*** Adjusting cvs-src permissions for portage user...

chmod: failed to get attributes of `/usr/X11R6/bin/XDirectFB': No such file or directory

```

Uh-oh.  And further up:

```

>>> Install xdirectfb-1.0_rc5 into /var/tmp/portage/xdirectfb-1.0_rc5/image/ category x11-base

install: cannot stat `/var/tmp/portage/xdirectfb-1.0_rc5/work/xc/programs/Xserver/XDirectFB': No such file or directory

```

Uh-oh.

Am I supposed to uninstall xfree before installing xdirectfb?  That's the only unusual thing I can think of off the top of my head; if one is a 'replacement' for the other,  maybe I need to uninstall the other.  I don't want to wait the hours for xfree to rebuild if I'm wrong, though.

Honestly though, after two attempts I'm getting rather blah about the whole thing.  Another issue which isn't DirectFB-related is that the rivafb driver has a stupid cursor problem on the text console, which is known and fixed in 2.5.x but hasn't been patched into 2.4.  Argh!

Edit: Just a thought actually.  I'm on rc5, maybe rc4 didn't have the problem?

----------

## ksuther

I've got xdirectfb working fairly well, but there are a couple of problems.

First, when I drag or resize a window, the whole screen goes black until I stop resizing or dragging, but the mouse stays visible, anybody else have that?

Second, how do I add the vesa:mtrr,ywrap to lilo?

----------

## dasalvagg

i'm thinking about installing xdirectfb, what kind of speed impovements are you guys seeing from this?  minimal at best, or are you shocked at the responsiveness of your system?  also has anyone noticed stability problems?  I dont mind a little working setting it up, but if its not stable once i get it setup....

----------

## qwerty

Hi

I have the same problem, theres no XDirectFB executable  :Sad: 

Edit: using 1.0_rc5

----------

## ksuther

 *qwerty wrote:*   

> Hi
> 
> I have the same problem, theres no XDirectFB executable 
> 
> Edit: using 1.0_rc5

 

Did you be sure to add fbcon to your use flags in make.conf? That might be the problem.

edit: I still haven't figured out why on my system whenever I drag a window in XDirectFB the whole screen goes black, and when I stop dragging it goes back to normal. Anybody have an idea? :\

----------

## Ari Rahikkala

It worketh! I tried it before but was unable to get it to work - I would get the light blue screen with the funky cone-shaped cursor but could do nothing but move it around and kill the server in that state. The reason for this might have something to do with the fact that I use the Windows key for window manager hot keys in evilwm, but XDirectFB uses it for opaqueness control (if it's not documented... well... I'm going to have to have a look at the modifier mapping of X. All I remember about it is that it's extremely weird.). Anyway, I'm going to try it out with IceWM or some other window manager now..

... BTW... is it normal that I can't ctrl-alt-fX out of XDirectFB?

----------

## Ari Rahikkala

OK... a few things...

- there are some quite strange bugs in XDirectFB. Starting xterm from IceWM's menu started two of them at a time. No, I don't know why. Accessing menus in Mozilla Firebird is a bit hard - in fact, basically impossible with the mouse. They just flicker and disappear. Fortunately, with the keyboard it's quite easy. Also, placing the cursor somewhere inside a text area without highlighting text seems to be impossible. It's as if the server couldn't tell the difference between a click and a drag.

- it feels fast. Both in a positive and negative sense. In the positive sense, response to everything is clearly quicker. In the negative sense, things that normally would be clearly visible now flicker in and out of existence way too quickly to be reacted to

- interestingly, the most visible change was in the startup speed of Mozilla Firebird. I've used X11 apps over SSH connections so I'm sort of aware that it does take quite a lot of discussion between the client and the server to get an app visible on the screen... but I couldn't guess that this would apply so strongly to locally started programs

(editing new stuff in 'cos three posts in a row would be a bit too much...)

I decided to try out XFCE4 within XDirectFB, as per ebrostig's thread in Gentoo Chat about how much it rocked. The results are quite interesting. I'm unable to move windows around and trying to resize a window blanks the screen. It's still fast, though. Unfortunately... fast but not quite usable. I added vt-switching to the configuration file and found out why it isn't "done" yet - although I could still see the stuff in my terminals, they were weirdly coloured (and overcast with a greenish pattern of some sort). I hope this gets fixed soon, since then I will be able to turn my computer into a high-performance Antidesktop... running eleven virtual framebuffer terminals (at least eleven - perhaps even  more for rainy days) for screen, ssh, emacs, irssi, top, cplay, emerge, etc. and XDirectFB for Mozilla Firebird. And when the DirectFB port of GTK+ matures enough, no X at all.

----------

## ksuther

 *Ari Rahikkala wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I decided to try out XFCE4 within XDirectFB, as per ebrostig's thread in Gentoo Chat about how much it rocked. The results are quite interesting. I'm unable to move windows around and trying to resize a window blanks the screen.

 

Hmm, I'm using xfce4 too and I have that problem. I guess I'll have to ask the xfce guys about that then.

----------

## jnicol

I'm having the same problem. I emerge xdirectfb, no executable when done. I tried unmerging xfree, and removing all x-related files from /usr/portage/distfiles and trying again, still no success. Can we get resolution on this? I'd sure like to use directfb.

my use flags:

```

USE="X -kde -qt alsa acpi avi dga directfb fbcon fbdev gd ggi gif imap imlib java jpeg kerberos krb4 libwww mbox mpeg ncurses opengl oss pam pdflib perl png python quicktime readline samba sasl sdl sse ssl svga tiff truetype usb xml xml2 xmms xv zlib radeon -sis -rage128 -matrox -3dfx -gamma -i8x0"

```

 *ksuther wrote:*   

>  *qwerty wrote:*   Hi
> 
> I have the same problem, theres no XDirectFB executable 
> 
> Edit: using 1.0_rc5 
> ...

 

----------

## splooge

Hrm, ...

I can't seem to be able to get transparencies to work ... shouldn't it "just work" once I load up startxdfb?  I can get to my desktop (fluxbox), I can pull up a terminal, but it's not transparent ... I can run LinNeighborhood, but it's not transparent, either.

Different problem: When trying to run xawtv I get these errors:

Xlib: extension "XVideo" missing on display :0.0

WARNING: couldn't find framebuffer base address, try manual configuration ("v4l-conf -a <addr>")

Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display :0.0

So my questions are ... 

1) How do I enable XVideo?

2) How do I find out what my framebuffer base address is?

3) How do I enable XFree86-DRI?

4) How come I get no /var/log/XFree86.0.log file when running startxdfb?  (I get one with normal startx)

5) Is there something I need to do to turn transparencies on?  Cause they just aren't working.

I know my framebuffer is working as I am running in 1024x768 with super small text and a logo on top of the kernel boot sequence... but that's about all I know =\

----------

## craftyc

 *jnicol wrote:*   

> I'm having the same problem. I emerge xdirectfb, no executable when done. I tried unmerging xfree, and removing all x-related files from /usr/portage/distfiles and trying again, still no success. Can we get resolution on this? I'd sure like to use directfb.
> 
> my use flags:
> 
> ```
> ...

 

I had the same problem. You must emerge the latest DirectFB.

 *Ari Rahikkala wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I decided to try out XFCE4 within XDirectFB, as per ebrostig's thread in Gentoo Chat about how much it rocked. The results are quite interesting. I'm unable to move windows around and trying to resize a window blanks the screen.

 

I have a similar problem. When ever I try to move or resize a window the screen goes black. Weird.

----------

## jnicol

 *craftyc wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I had the same problem. You must emerge the latest DirectFB.
> 
> 

 

```

*  dev-libs/DirectFB

      Latest version available: 0.9.17

      Latest version installed: 0.9.17

      Size of downloaded files: 923 kB

      Homepage:    http://www.directfb.org/

      Description: Thin library on top of the Linux framebuffer devices

*  x11-base/xdirectfb [ Masked ]

      Latest version available: 1.0_rc5

      Latest version installed: 1.0_rc5

      Size of downloaded files: 66,044 kB

      Homepage:    http://www.directfb.org

      Description: XDirectFB is a rootless XServer on top of DirectFB

```

Is this not sufficient? Should I unmerge and remerge both of these?

----------

## hbmartin

Does directFB work with the 2.6 series?

Harold

----------

## bruor

does anyone know if xdirectfb will function with gdm ?  and if not will it work with kdm?   i would like to set up teh xvnc terminal server using directfb cause it would allow poeple to see what fb looks liek before trying it out...  thanks,

----------

## tecknojunky

I have read just about every post there is about XDirectFB and, after being convinced in can cohabit with xfree, decided to give it a shot.

I wasn't expecting much, due the number of problems reported.  And I tought I had to go set a ton of configuration files and all.

Quite suprisingly, it started Gnome on the first shot!  So, Xfree without Xfree.  Interresting.  I was impress, but not enough to switch completely.

The only app (of the few I tried) I could not use was gdesklet.  I tried glxgears (soft render), Eterm, Realone, gaim, evolution and mozilla.  They all worked.

But, I have to disable gpm (how does Quingy manage to not be disturb by it?), I can't switch vt, double click is insamly too fast (one click is taken as two), performance is very dodgy (smoothness very susceptible to cpu usages by other processes), and it eventualy nothing respond (clicking whatever does nothing, not even focus).

So, It's not ready for "emerge & go" yet.

btw, I'm using kernel 2.6 (mm-source test 11) with sis630 framebuffer support.

Anyone know if DirectFBGL provide 3D accelerations, or if it's worst than XDirectFB?

----------

## bruor

qingy was just an idea cause its a framebuffer log in manager i havent got around to trying it out yet...

----------

## tecknojunky

 *bruor wrote:*   

> qingy was just an idea cause its a framebuffer log in manager i havent got around to trying it out yet...

 

Well, if you have framebuffer and you like eye candy, Quingy is more bang for a buck than you can ever get.  Give it a try, it's really no hassle to get it working.

I havent toyed more xdirectfb, but I came to think, maybe xdirectfb is made to be the sole terninal interface, once it's started.

Qingy uses the same framebuffer, but you still can have text terminal to witch you can switch, and it's not in conflict with gpm (while in xdirectfb, you see gpm drawing on the canvas when moving the mouse.  Pretty ugly in Gnome).

----------

## Moled

add the line:

```

vt-switching

```

to your ~/.directfbrc to enabled vt-switching

and does anybody have any idea how to fix the mouse double click issue?

----------

## zerwas

I have the same problem with the double click issue. It's the only thing that holds me from using xdirectfb. My Mouse seems to get detected twice (or the libdirectfb_ps2mouse.so driver) - perhaps that is the problem? And if i click too much around, it doesn't react at all.

----------

## bruor

i have the same problem with my mouse... well the TP control stick thing... 

is there a way to change the driver it uses so that i dont have this issue?  and if not  how do i tell it to use a usb mouse over that one?

----------

## mlybarger

i can get this to work as root when i don't have an existing xserver running by running the startxdfb script.  i typically run xdm, and can't figure out how to start this as a separate wm (:1). any ideas what i need to do?

i can run XDirectFB :1 -enableRoot as a user and get a separate window to come up, but it doesn't source my .xinitrc which looks like:

```

#!/bin/sh

# merge in defaults and keymaps

USERRESOURCES=$HOME/.Xresources

USERMODMAP=$HOME/.Xmodmap

if [ -f $USERRESOURCES ]; then

    xrdb -merge $USERRESOURCES

fi

if [ -f $USERMODMAP ]; then

    xmodmap $USERMODMAP

fi

# console window

exec fluxbox

xterm +sb -fg white -bg black -C -geometry 45x6-200+8 -fn 6x13 -name console &

mozilla &

```

.xinitrc for me is actually a symlink to .xsession, but that's the contents.any suggestions how to get this to work along side xdm would be nice. i get the blue screen with the drop shaped mouse pointer, and wait and wait, but it doesn't run anything in .xinitrc.  help?

----------

## Dillinger

I'm having source compile errors when trying to emerge the latest ebuild.  I checked out the bug reports and supposedly its fixed, is anyone else having problems?

----------

## boroshan

 *lurid wrote:*   

>  *fimblo wrote:*   
> 
> ```
> waoh xdirectfb# ACCEPT_HEYWORDS="~x86" emerge xdirectfb-1.0_rc4.ebuild 
> 
> ...

 

I just did this - by cutting and pasting from the original article in the thread.

gsfgf - if you get a spare minute you might want to do a quick edit  :Smile: 

----------

## viperlin

heres one nobodys asked  :Smile: 

i'm installing it on my laptop (low spec, need a less heavy x server, figured i'd try xdirectfb) and i would like to use xfce4 with it :- ) however now i want not to install XFree86.

whats the chances i HAVE to have it installed for xfce4 to install?

----------

## viperlin

ok xdirectfb does not work on it's own, startxdirectfb (for one is not in the default run path) and gives xauth command not found and xinit command not found.

running "XDirectFB -enableRoot" gives libXext.so.6 no such file or directory  :Sad: 

----------

## boroshan

mmm... I concur.  I took xfree off my old laptop and put xdirectfb on, hoping to save some resources.  I'm trying to run afterstep and/or ratpoison here, so it's not an xfce4 issue.

I got the impression that Damn Small Linux runs using xdirectfb in place of xfree, but then the docs that come with xdirectfb propose installing by patching xfree

and if the xdirectfb code depended upon xfree, shouldn't that show up in the dependancies?

I'm getting confused here

----------

## viperlin

or the part of xfree86 needed should be a dependancy...

i'm installing it now (xfree86) and xfce4, i will just not use xfree, it's out of date now anyway with xserver probably taking over due to the new licence

----------

## psofa

does someone know how to solve the double mouse bug?

----------

## viperlin

nope, i switched back to sloe bulky Xfree86

----------

## boroshan

I found this which doesn't help that much since the original poster has yet to reply, but the idea that the system might be seeing two mice instead of just the one is interesting.

I'm limited in how far I can pursue this at the moment since I too uninstalled it from one machine, and the other isn't ytet ready for it. All the same I wonder... could it be that gpm and xfree are both reporting the clicks to the application at once?

Edit:

Also found this which looks promising. 

Hope that helps

----------

## psofa

the problem about it is that although i have got it to recognise only one mouse i still get

CAUGHT SIGNAL 11 even after making the change to dfb's code

----------

## boroshan

Signal 11 - that's a segmentation violation. Any dependant libraries need recompiling? That'd be my first guess

----------

## psofa

it happens only when trying to use the input layer

----------

## psofa

the other thing is that i cant find the log of directfb so i dont know whats wrong exaclty

 :Sad: 

----------

## psofa

ok after one day experimenting i fixed it see my new thread

HOWTO:Fix the directfb double mouse bug !

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=148454

----------

## Sephiroth

Ladies and gentleman, I am happy to inform you of...

 :Shocked:  OpenGL support for xdirectfb.  :Shocked: 

I will be installing this over the weekend and give you a full report when it's done (Tuesday at the latest).

** EDIT **: Sorry, but it'll be a bit longer. I ran into some unforseen difficulties and won't be able to post my configuration for a while.

----------

## tecknojunky

 *Sephiroth wrote:*   

> Ladies and gentleman, I am happy to inform you of...
> 
>  OpenGL support for xdirectfb. 
> 
> I will be installing this over the weekend and give you a full report when it's done (Tuesday at the latest).

 

Old news.  It's been out for a while.  I guess you are one of the luckys that have a Matrox card.

I gave a new shot at xdirectfb with the new rc emerged in.  Same look & feel.  Altough the system feels faster, it is also succeptible to CPU usage fluctuations.  Finally, I will have to find a way to keep the virtual terminals to which I can't switch no more if xdirectfb is running.

I guess I will either have to wait for a SiS driver OR go buy myself a Matrox card.  But would I love to see this in accelerated mode.  Whoo whee must it fly.

Back to xfree version "almost" 4.4

----------

## Sephiroth

 *tecknojunky wrote:*   

> Old news.  It's been out for a while.  

 

Sorry, didn't meen to give out the impression that it's new. I know it's been out for a while, it's just that most of the other posts said "XDirectFB has no OpenGL support" so I thought this would be as good a place as any to post the link.

Again, sorry if I gave off the wrong impression!  :Embarassed: 

----------

## tecknojunky

 *Sephiroth wrote:*   

>  *tecknojunky wrote:*   Old news.  It's been out for a while.   
> 
> Sorry, didn't meen to give out the impression that it's new. I know it's been out for a while, it's just that most of the other posts said "XDirectFB has no OpenGL support" so I thought this would be as good a place as any to post the link.
> 
> Again, sorry if I gave off the wrong impression! 

 No problem.  It does offer GL support, but only for some Matrox cards only.

----------

## Sephiroth

 *tecknojunky wrote:*   

> No problem.  It does offer GL support, but only for some Matrox cards only.

 

Just to clarify, Matrox cards are the only ones supported for hardware acceleration. Other card will work, but only with software acceleration.

Also, wish me luck, cause I'm going to try something difficult (well, difficult for me)! Since DirectFBGL uses Mesa for OpenGL and Mesa had an old project (Utah-GLX) that supported hardware acceleration for NVidia cards, I'm going to try and combine them for hardware accelerated OpenGL with DirectFB on my NVidia card.

If it works, great. If not, at least I tried!

----------

## tecknojunky

 *Sephiroth wrote:*   

>  *tecknojunky wrote:*   No problem.  It does offer GL support, but only for some Matrox cards only. 
> 
> Just to clarify, Matrox cards are the only ones supported for hardware acceleration. Other card will work, but only with software acceleration.

 Now *youy* got me  :Embarassed:   :Wink: 

Good luck with your attempt.

----------

## Sephiroth

 *Sephiroth wrote:*   

> Since DirectFBGL uses Mesa for OpenGL and Mesa had an old project (Utah-GLX) that supported hardware acceleration for NVidia cards, I'm going to try and combine them for hardware accelerated OpenGL with DirectFB on my NVidia card.

 

::EDITTED FOR CLARITY::

Unfortunaley, I found out that this will not work. DirectFBGL uses DRI for hardware exceleration and Utah-GLX doesn't support DRI. Also, the Utah-GLX drivers is only supported in XFree.

 :Crying or Very sad:  Bummer! :Crying or Very sad: 

----------

## vthokiestm

 *bruor wrote:*   

> does anyone know if xdirectfb will function with gdm ?  and if not will it work with kdm?

 

 :Very Happy:  I found this thread to get gdm working...

http://www.mail-archive.com/directfb-users@directfb.org/msg01783.html

you change /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf to point to DirectFB

<snip>

In /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf set the line 'VTAllocation=false'

Take note of the lines:

'StandardXServer=/usr/X11R6/bin/X' & 

'command=/usr/X11R6/bin/X'

Either change those 2 lines to point to /usr/X11R6/bin/XDirectFB or

remove & re-create the symlink /usr/X11R6/bin/X to point to

/usr/X11R6/bin/XDirectFB.

You can also set other options for the X server on the 'command' line.

eg. 'command=/usr/X11R6/bin/XDirectFB -enableRoot -defaultOpacity 200

        -ac -nolisten tcp'

</snip>

----------

## Cheesepie

I followed this guide exactly.

When I startxdfb, I get a gigantic blue screen (the one that appears before xinitrc executes). But before xinitrc can execute, something goes wrong.

The screen turns black, with a weird blue icon in the middle of the screen.

I have to hard reboot when that happens  :Sad: 

Radeon 9000 M, RadeonFB drivers, framebuffer running at 1400x1050

any ideas?  :Smile: 

EDIT- Perhaps the radeonfb drivers are just utter total shit, because everything (bootsplash and xdirectfb) work fine with vesafb.  I cant even get bootsplash to work with radeonfb  :Mad: 

Also, when I get xdfb working via vesafb, Im having the thinkpad "mouse events happen twice" problem. How can I fix it?

EDIT (again) - Hmmm, when both RadeonFB and VesaFB support is compiled into the kernel, I'm able to specify video=radeonfb in grub and xdfb will work! (Without VesaFB support compiled in, xdfb/radeonfb will lock up my machine). 

Still no bootsplash with radeonfb; I only get bootsplash with video=vesafb

----------

## chrono325

Okay, am I completely missing the point, or do you need xdirectfb _and_ xorg or xfree? I tried startxdfb with just xdirectfb, but it complained about not being able to find xauth or xinit. Am I missing something big, or is there just something wrong with my install. I would like to be able to use xdirectfb becaue of its smaller footprint (I'm trying for a liveUSB flash drive). When I tried to emerge fluxbox or any window manager, it failed to find X during the config phase. I basically want the lightest weight X server I can find, and xdirectfb claims to be light, or at least better than Xorg.

Thanks

----------

## Sky

Just a few word of partial success, with a intel855GM graphic card and a P-M 1.4

I tried xdirectfb in parallel with xorg, booting one or the other with Qingy as my kernel was using FB anyway (driver i810).

It installed without problem, and work nicely. I had a problem with the double click, but it was solved by deleting my /dev/psaux.

/dev/psaux was a link towards /dev/misc/psaux so directfb detect two mouses and so --> two clicks. On the other hand working at the same time with the touchpad and an external usb mouse works perfectly.

What is working :

- nearly everything not graphically  intensive, Firefox, Thunderbird, OOffice, all my WindowMaker docklets (wmbutton, wmxmms, wmnd,wmlaptop...)

- The speed to have the screen from qingy already in FB, is of course impressive when compared with the starting of X

- Starting of applications and responsiveness SEEMS faster, although a clock gives me roughly the same result for the starting in X or FB. Optical illusion ??  I didn't do extensive tests.

What is not working:

The background menu in WinMaker (logical the 'background" as such is completly different)

Everything graphic intensive, is either so slow it is unusable or crashed with the notable exception of mplayer that works very well. But the front-end gmplayer doesn't libe it.

This is, with exactly the same configuration as in xorg, so some optimisation is probably possible but I didn't  search. (yet !   :Twisted Evil:  )

So a wonderful server ( changing the transparency with the scroll wheel, coool), but still in beta.

Install it and give it a try, you won't regret it but it is far from ready for production , which the developpers never say it was....Last edited by Sky on Wed Dec 01, 2004 5:29 am; edited 2 times in total

----------

## Trejkaz

I always figured Intel cards would work pretty well, because the graphics drivers for real applications are a lot more stable than the two big gaming brands.  :Smile: 

----------

## guero61

Okay, I'm going to bite - I'm convinced I want to try XDirectFB, but there is _SOMETHING_ wrong the installation.  Dozens of people have reported that when they run 'emerge xdirectfb' that at the end of it's hours-long compilation, somewhere, somehow, the binary XDirectFB doesn't exist.  I've experienced it myself, and I have the latest versions of directfb and xdirectfb, I have the right USE and ACCEPT_KEYWORDS flags, everything, but there's no luck.  

I've submitted a bug report, but I'm really disappointed.  Has anyone resolved this?

----------

## Trejkaz

I wonder why some people have that problem while others don't.  I know that when I tried it, the binary did exist.  The whole thing just ran like crap, so I ended up deleting it anyway.  :Wink: 

----------

## Dantist

OOps - it doesn't work  :Sad:  It seems that it cant parse 2 strings of my initrc  :Sad:  then i start xdirectfb it says loading, but nothing happens - no errors, or anything... I know it takes some time to start up, but not all night !!!! (by accedent i startet it and forgot about it so it tried to startup the whole night...) I tried with vesafb and atyfb - result is the same... it doest depend on kernel - i've tried gentoo-dev-sources & nitro... XSESSION env also seems not to affect this behavior... Video card is ati rage lt 4mb (laptop Compaq Frmada M300)

----------

## desertstalker

The default vesa framebuffer does not provide any refresh rates greater than 60hz.  nor does it pay attention to the resolution specified in the video= line.  you need to use a vesa mode number for the res you wnat and the vga= line.

IF you wnat better control of resolutions and refresh rates use vesafb-tng (its in gentoo-dev-sources)

----------

## Predatory Kangaroo

 *guero61 wrote:*   

> Okay, I'm going to bite - I'm convinced I want to try XDirectFB, but there is _SOMETHING_ wrong the installation.  Dozens of people have reported that when they run 'emerge xdirectfb' that at the end of it's hours-long compilation, somewhere, somehow, the binary XDirectFB doesn't exist.  I've experienced it myself, and I have the latest versions of directfb and xdirectfb, I have the right USE and ACCEPT_KEYWORDS flags, everything, but there's no luck.  
> 
> I've submitted a bug report, but I'm really disappointed.  Has anyone resolved this?

 

Yep, I'm experiencing this too - doesn't look like the bug report is going anywhere, so I've downgraded to the stable architecture build of DirectFB (0.9.20-r1) and am currently emerging XDirectFB again.

If I don't get any luck with this, I'm going to have to delve much deeper into the make process.

If I can actually do anything with this, I'll post again here.

----------

## Sadako

I've encountered the no binary created error too, and read somewhere on the forums that this is a gcc 3.4 problem. Is everyone else who encountered this problem using 3.4? 

If so, a gcc-config to 3.3 should fix the problem, but I have to upgrade my 3.3 version before I can try this.

----------

## JohnX

Hi, I'm new to gentoo and these forums (but not to linux  :Wink: ), so forgive me if this has already been resolved and I'm just bringing up a dead thread.   I found a couple patches here that seem to be related to the error that xdirectfb complains about when it fails to compile.  I've applied them and they *seem* to at least let libdirectfb.a compile which was the at least one of the problems.  I'm doing the full 'make World' now but if I waited until it was done I'm sure I'd forget to post anything.  I'll try and remember to post back here if it works.  :Cool: 

-John

----------

## JohnX

haha! It works! I haven't done much testing but at least it runs and I can move the cursor around.  This is with DirectFB 0.9.21 with fusion support.

----------

## rshadow

I'm trying to get xdirectfb to work .. but I have a problem . after emerging xdirectfb the file /usr/X11R6/bin/XDirectFB does not exist!

----------

## Xargon

 *rshadow wrote:*   

> I'm trying to get xdirectfb to work .. but I have a problem . after emerging xdirectfb the file /usr/X11R6/bin/XDirectFB does not exist!

 

Same problem here.  I've tried this on two seperate machines: one a laptop with a Rage 128 Mobility, the other a desktop with a Matrox G400.  Both machines are running the stable builds of DirectFB, but neither has the XDirectFB executable after emerging.

----------

## Dr Meduza

 *Xargon wrote:*   

>  *rshadow wrote:*   I'm trying to get xdirectfb to work .. but I have a problem . after emerging xdirectfb the file /usr/X11R6/bin/XDirectFB does not exist! 
> 
> Same problem here. ...

 

same problem  :Sad: 

----------

## Nemesis_cR

 *Dr Meduza wrote:*   

>  *Xargon wrote:*    *rshadow wrote:*   I'm trying to get xdirectfb to work .. but I have a problem . after emerging xdirectfb the file /usr/X11R6/bin/XDirectFB does not exist! 
> 
> Same problem here. ... 
> 
> same problem 

 

i have same problem. are there that sovle this problem?  :Crying or Very sad: 

----------

## Naguissa

Another one whith tahta problem  :Crying or Very sad: 

¿Wich X server for a Pentium II 233 with 64Mb of RAM? XOrg is too much slow, heavy.

----------

## Dr Meduza

 *Naguissa wrote:*   

> Another one whith tahta problem 
> 
> ¿Wich X server for a Pentium II 233 with 64Mb of RAM? XOrg is too much slow, heavy.

 

I have on my notebook Damn Small Linux

I dont know what it use but after boot (with started Fluxbox+icons,some dock aplications a background picture) it have used about 25MB of ram for aplications  :Rolling Eyes: 

BTW: my notebook AMD K6-2+ 400 1.4V  :Cool:   88MB ram  :Rolling Eyes:  and 20G disk

----------

## wilho

 *Nemesis_cR wrote:*   

>  *Dr Meduza wrote:*    *Xargon wrote:*    *rshadow wrote:*   I'm trying to get xdirectfb to work .. but I have a problem . after emerging xdirectfb the file /usr/X11R6/bin/XDirectFB does not exist! 
> 
> Same problem here. ... 
> 
> same problem  
> ...

 

Count me in. This is reported as a bug in last year, but still remains unresolved.

X server and its developent in linux is in bad shape if you ask me. A lot of ppl (including me) still got random lockups with Xorg, and in its current state it is such a slow, sluggish memory hog anyway.

Xgl looks like my saviour, but it's not there yet.

----------

## rshadow

maybe somebody could do a ebuild for Xgl instead.  I'm really looking for a light weight x server.

----------

## wilho

Here's something to try out if you haven't heard of KDrive before. You'll need to forget mouse wheel and DRI.

----------

## r2d2

ok, and now a question:

Anyone have a working xdirectfb with GL?

I am using a matrox g200 and having a trouble to get directfbgl to work. I compiled everything from cvs including directfb. xdirectfb works here but I want GL support. I rewrote a xdirectfb ebuild so it's patching a xorg sources. Could that be the problem? But in xdirectfb cvs there is a xorg patch diff. Help?

----------

## DocterD

can somebody write a new ebuild for the currently 1.6.4 XDirectFB Build?

----------

## gaelic

 *DocterD wrote:*   

> can somebody write a new ebuild for the currently 1.6.4 XDirectFB Build?

 

where have you found 1.6.4?

----------

## ahornby

Read how to fix it here:

https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=76167

From the bug report

*****************

----- Additional Comment #13 From  Joe Acosta  2005-07-22 13:49 PDT -------

It seems my build did not take all day, like I thought it would.

Okay after commenting out the 2 lines in directfbX.c XDirectFB now compiles to

completion.  I believe that these two lines have to do with DPMS, so I am not

sure what the result will be by comment thse out.  

My compiled XDirectFB is linked againt the correct DirectFB now, and after

chaning perms to 6755, and putting it in /usr/X11R6/bin manually, it is now up

and running.

The two lines are lines 705 and 706 in directfbX.c, which are 

if ( layer->SetScreenPowerMode(layer, mode) == DFB_OK ) 

       DPMSPowerLevel = level;

It seems that the SetScreenPowerMode has been moved from the layer to the screen

(http://www.directfb.org/index.php/viewcvs.cgi/DirectFB/tools/dfbinfo.c)

It runs okay otherwise.

1) I think the ebuild should fail to build, I don't know why it does not.  When

I went into the directory I actually got an error on the compilation of that file.

2) I believe the current ebuild version needs DirectFB 9.18, I think or 19.

I created a local overlay and locally modified the ebuild as Joe suggests and it compiled.

I now have XDirectFB.

Anthony

----------

## Naguissa

Fixed! New ebuild avaiable and runing! Thnks to the one who has fixed it!

----------

## incubator

maybe a stupid question, but when following this procedure when already haing a running xorg-x11 server , will this configuration for XDirectFB override X.org and thus ensure you're having a framebuffered X ?

(a bit confusing atm, I must admit)

----------

## Kenji Miyamoto

I can't get the server to start other than a brief instant with the light blue screen.  After the instant, I only see an underscore sitting in the upper-left corner.

dfbserverrc:

```
#!/bin/bash

exec /usr/X11R6/bin/XDirectFB -enableRoot & DISPLAY=:0 & openbox & scim -d &
```

Errors:

```
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/dfbserverrc

(openbox:6942): Openbox-CRITICAL **: Failed to open the display.

XDirectFB / X Window System

(protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6600)

   If the server is older than 6-12 months, or if your hardware is

   newer than the above date, look for a newer version before

   reporting problems.  (See http://www.XFree86.Org/FAQ)

       ---------------------- DirectFB v0.9.24 ---------------------

             (c) 2000-2002  convergence integrated media GmbH  

             (c) 2002-2004  convergence GmbH                   

        -----------------------------------------------------------

(*) DirectFB/Core: Single Application Core. (2005-11-18 15:55) 

Launching a SCIM daemon with Socket FrontEnd...

Loading simple Config module ...

Creating backend ...

(*) Direct/Memcpy: Using MMXEXT optimized memcpy()

(*) Direct/Thread: Running 'VT Switcher' (CRITICAL, 6951)...

(*) Direct/Thread: Running 'PS/2 Input' (INPUT, 6952)...

 (!!!)  *** UNIMPLEMENTED [fusion_reactor_set_lock] *** [reactor.c:797]

(*) DirectFB/Input: IMPS/2 Mouse 1.0 (Convergence GmbH)

(*) Direct/Thread: Running 'Keyboard Input' (INPUT, 6953)...

(*) DirectFB/Input: Keyboard 0.9 (convergence integrated media GmbH)

(*) DirectFB/Genefx: MMX detected and enabled

(*) DirectFB/Graphics: MMX Software Rasterizer 0.6 (convergence integrated media GmbH)

(*) DirectFB/Core/WM: Default 0.2 (Convergence GmbH)

(*) Direct/Thread: Running 'EventBufferFeed' (MESSAGING, 6954)...

Screen 0 added: 640x480

       ---------------------- DirectFB v0.9.24 ---------------------

             (c) 2000-2002  convergence integrated media GmbH  

             (c) 2002-2004  convergence GmbH                   

        -----------------------------------------------------------

(*) DirectFB/Core: Single Application Core. (2005-11-18 15:55) 

(*) Direct/Memcpy: Using MMXEXT optimized memcpy()

(*) Direct/Thread: Running 'VT Switcher' (CRITICAL, 6960)...

(*) Direct/Thread: Running 'PS/2 Input' (INPUT, 6961)...

 (!!!)  *** UNIMPLEMENTED [fusion_reactor_set_lock] *** [reactor.c:797]

(*) DirectFB/Input: IMPS/2 Mouse 1.0 (Convergence GmbH)

(*) Direct/Thread: Running 'Keyboard Input' (INPUT, 6962)...

(*) DirectFB/Input: Keyboard 0.9 (convergence integrated media GmbH)

(*) DirectFB/Genefx: MMX detected and enabled

(*) DirectFB/Graphics: MMX Software Rasterizer 0.6 (convergence integrated media GmbH)

(*) DirectFB/Core/WM: Default 0.2 (Convergence GmbH)

xinit:  unexpected signal 1.
```

----------

## Owlbuster

This is probably a silly question, but I can't get the mouse to work at all, I think this is because i don't have libdirectfb_ps2mouse in inputdrivers. How can I solve this?

----------

## damienmoody

I have the same problem - I get it emerged, but the XDirectFB binary is missing. I also downloaded and tried to compile the source from directfb.org, but it failed during the make process. So...

Does someone just have a binary they're willing to post somewhere for us luckless clowns who just can't seem to get it working? Or else does anyone have a definitive how-to?

----------

## segin

The irony is that people take a framebuffer on x86 for granted. On every other arch Linux has NO OTHER MEANS OF DIRECT CONSOLE OUTPUT. There is no hardware text output device. The SPARCstation doesn't use a text console, the boot monitor and all that actually run on a framebuffer, for example. The only real exception I can think of on the top of my head is the GameBoy Advance port, being that the hardware supports a tiled graphical mode (which resembles x86 text mode).

----------

## ArtemUA

Is anybody living there?  :Smile: 

I have some problems with installation of xdirectfb on gentoo  :Sad: 

for xdirectfb-...-r1 ebuild: XDirectFB executable file not creating and no error message until merging operation;

for xdirectfb-...-r2 ebuild (previouse bug fixed as I understand): error during compilation in fcfreetype.c file for "#include" statement.

So, it all very obscure, many questions and no answers  :Sad: 

----------

## doublehp

Is /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/dfbserverrc the only conf file to alter ?

For ref, I found this small doc: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Setup_xdirectfb

What about multiple head ? anything like xinerama supported ? multiple cards ? multiple-output cards ?

----------

## ueymir

 *ArtemUA wrote:*   

> Is anybody living there? 
> 
> I have some problems with installation of xdirectfb on gentoo 
> 
> for xdirectfb-...-r1 ebuild: XDirectFB executable file not creating and no error message until merging operation;
> ...

 

I, too, have a problem related to freetype. Here is the last snippet of output when compiling (the latest and unstable) xdirectfb_1.0-rc5-r2:

```

+ rm -f libXinerama.so.1

+ ln -s libXinerama.so.1.0 libXinerama.so.1

+ rm -f ../../exports/lib/libXinerama.so.1

+ cd ../../exports/lib

+ ln -s ../../lib/Xinerama/libXinerama.so.1 .

+ rm -f libXinerama.so

+ ln -s libXinerama.so.1.0 libXinerama.so

+ rm -f ../../exports/lib/libXinerama.so

+ cd ../../exports/lib

+ ln -s ../../lib/Xinerama/libXinerama.so .

+ cd .

+ gcc -m32 -o ./libXrender.so.1.2.2~ -shared -Wl,-soname,libXrender.so.1 Xrender.o AddTrap.o Color.o Composite.o Cursor.o Glyph.o Picture.o FillRect.o FillRects.o Filter.o Poly.o Trap.o Tri.o -L../../exports/lib -lXext -lX11 -lc

+ rm -f libXrender.so.1

+ ln -s libXrender.so.1.2.2 libXrender.so.1

+ rm -f ../../exports/lib/libXrender.so.1

+ cd ../../exports/lib

+ ln -s ../../lib/Xrender/libXrender.so.1 .

+ rm -f libXrender.so

+ ln -s libXrender.so.1.2.2 libXrender.so

+ rm -f ../../exports/lib/libXrender.so

+ cd ../../exports/lib

+ ln -s ../../lib/Xrender/libXrender.so .

fcatomic.c: In function ‘FcAtomicLock’:

fcatomic.c:102: warning: unused variable ‘f’

fcatomic.c:101: warning: unused variable ‘fd’

fccfg.c: In function ‘FcConfigHome’:

fccfg.c:1526: warning: pointer targets in return differ in signedness

fcfreetype.c:52:10: error: #include expects "FILENAME" or <FILENAME>

fcfreetype.c: In function ‘FcVendorFoundry’:

fcfreetype.c:253: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 2 of ‘FcVendorMatch’ differ in signedness

fcfreetype.c: In function ‘FcFreeTypeQuery’:

fcfreetype.c:333: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of ‘FcVendorFoundry’ differ in signedness

fcfreetype.c:568: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of ‘FcNoticeFoundry’ differ in signedness

fcfreetype.c:797: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:799: warning: pointer targets in assignment differ in signedness

fcfreetype.c:805: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:827: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:834: warning: pointer targets in initialization differ in signedness

fcfreetype.c:835: warning: pointer targets in initialization differ in signedness

fcfreetype.c:836: warning: pointer targets in initialization differ in signedness

fcfreetype.c:883: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘FT_MODULE_CLASS’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

fcfreetype.c:883: error: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

fcfreetype.c:883: error: invalid type argument of ‘->’

make[4]: *** [fcfreetype.o] Error 1

make[3]: *** [all] Error 2

make[2]: *** [all] Error 2

make[1]: *** [World] Error 2

make: *** [World] Error 2

 [31;01m*[0m 

 [31;01m*[0m ERROR: x11-base/xdirectfb-1.0_rc5-r2 failed.

 [31;01m*[0m Call stack:

 [31;01m*[0m               ebuild.sh, line   49:  Called src_compile

 [31;01m*[0m             environment, line 2039:  Called die

 [31;01m*[0m The specific snippet of code:

 [31;01m*[0m       emake World || die

 [31;01m*[0m  The die message:

 [31;01m*[0m   (no error message)

 [31;01m*[0m 

 [31;01m*[0m If you need support, post the topmost build error, and the call stack if relevant.

 [31;01m*[0m A complete build log is located at '/tmp/portage/x11-base/xdirectfb-1.0_rc5-r2/temp/build.log'.

 [31;01m*[0m The ebuild environment file is located at '/tmp/portage/x11-base/xdirectfb-1.0_rc5-r2/temp/environment'.

 [31;01m*[0m 
```

Version of freetype (stable) and DirectFB (unstable) are:

```

[ebuild   R   ] media-libs/freetype-2.3.7  USE="X -bindist -debug -doc -utils" 0 kB 

[ebuild   R   ] dev-libs/DirectFB-1.1.1  USE="X fbcon fusion gif jpeg mmx png sse truetype v4l v4l2 zlib -debug -sdl -sysfs" 0 kB 

```

I ran revdep-rebuild already and remerged freetype and DirectFB. Can anyone help me with this and what to try next?

Thanks

Edit: Oh yeah, emerge --info

```

Portage 2.1.4.4 (default-linux/x86/2007.0, gcc-4.1.2, glibc-2.6.1-r0, 2.6.22-gentoo-r10 i686)

=================================================================

System uname: 2.6.22-gentoo-r10 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.60GHz

Timestamp of tree: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:06:01 +0000

app-shells/bash:     3.2_p33

dev-lang/python:     2.5.2-r5

sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.11.1

sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.18.1-r2

sys-devel/autoconf:  2.61-r2

sys-devel/automake:  1.9.6-r2, 1.10.1

sys-devel/binutils:  2.18-r3

sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.0-r4

sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.26

virtual/os-headers:  2.6.23-r3

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium-m -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc"

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/splash /etc/terminfo /etc/udev/rules.d"

CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium-m -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe"

DISTDIR="/usr/distfiles"

FEATURES="distlocks nodoc noinfo sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch"

GENTOO_MIRRORS=" http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/gentoo/ http://pandemonium.tiscali.de/pub/gentoo/ ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/gentoo http://mirror.uni-c.dk/pub/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.tu-clausthal.de/pub/linux/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.linux.ee/pub/gentoo/distfiles/"

LANG="en_US.UTF-8"

LINGUAS="de en"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

PKGDIR="/usr/packages"

PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="a52 aac alsa audiofile bash-completion bidi bzip2 cjk cli crypt cups dga divx dri dv dvd encode exif fbcon ffmpeg flac fortran ftp gd gdbm gif iconv icq ieee1394 imagemagick imap imlib isdnlog javascript jpeg latex lm_sensors mad matroska midi mime mmx motif mp3 mpeg msn mudflap musepack musicbrainz ncurses nls nntp nocd nptl nptlonly ogg openal opengl openmp pam pcmcia pcre pdf perl png pppd python quicktime readline reflection session slang sndfile snmp speex spl sse sse2 ssl tcpd tga theora tiff truetype unicode userlocales v4l vcd vorbis wifi win32codecs wmf x86 xface xorg xosd xpm xulrunner xv xvid zlib" ALSA_CARDS="intel8x0" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse synaptics" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="ncurses text" LINGUAS="de en" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="radeon fbdev v4l vesa"

Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS

```

Just a thought, but is DirectFB-extra doing anything special? I tried to emerge the corresponding version for a test but it fails due to an error conected to dfb_surface_soft_lock (complete error log if someone finds it interesting).

----------

