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Our old backend was hacked together and hadn't have any structure. This is a new approach to create the uterm-library inside kmscon. The uterm-library will contain everything that is needed to run an application on Linux DRM devices without X11 or Wayland support. The idea is to move the input subsystem to uterm, too. No other stuff is currently planned to be included in uterm. Although uterm is supposed to be a separate library, we do not build it as such library. We currently include the log-subsystem and the eloop-handlers in the library so we cannot build it as stand-alone library. However, we try to keep it separate so if we ever need to export it, then it should be a one-hour job to do it so. Signed-off-by: David Herrmann <dh.herrmann@googlemail.com>
= KMSCON =
Kmscon is a simple terminal emulator based on linux kernel mode setting (KMS).
It is an attempt to replace the in-kernel VT implementation with a userspace
console.
== Requirements ==
Kmscon requires the following software:
- libdrm: accessing the kernel graphics layer
- mesa: providing an OpenGL implementation (must be compiled with EGL, gbm
and GL libraries)
- udev: providing input device hotplug
- xproto (build time dependency): definition of key symbols
- libxkbcommon: keyboard handling (optional but strongly recommended)
Without libxkbcommon, basic US-ASCII input is provided.
- glib: only for Unicode handling
- One of:
- freetype2: drawing generic text
- pango: drawing text with pango (use --enable-pango)
Pango requires: glib, cairo, pangocairo, pango and freetype2
== Install ==
To compile the kmscon binary, run the standard autotools commands:
$ ./configure [--enable-debug] [--enable-pango]
$ make
$ make install
To compile the test applications, run:
$ make check
== License ==
This software is licensed under the terms of the MIT license. Please see
./COPYING for further information.
== FAQ ==
=== Why didn't you use libvte or similar terminal emulators? ===
All existing terminal emulators I found highly depend on X. Also, their code
base often is a horrible mess. I haven't had the time to convert them to use
other drawing functions than Xlib, yet.
If you feel like doing this work, please notify me. I would be glad to adjust
my code to work with other terminal emulators.
== Contact ==
This software is maintained by:
David Herrmann <dh.herrmann@googlemail.com>
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact one of the maintainers.
== Code Base ==
The kmscon code is split into several independent subsystems:
- output:
This code manages the KMS/DRI output and provides OpenGL framebuffers.
- console:
This draws the text on the screen and provides an API for any terminal
emulator to visualize its contents.
- eloop:
Main loop implementation.
- log:
Log file handling.
- unicode:
Provides basic Unicode handling.
- font:
Font loading, caching and drawing operations.
- input:
All linux input events are captured here and converted to Unicode
characters for input handling.
- vt:
The linux VT subsystem integration. This allows to run the application in
a classic linux VT like X does.
- vte:
The terminal emulator library.
- terminal:
Connects the console, output, input and vte handling into a real terminal.
- main:
This connects all subsystems into a usable console application.