08-08-2012, 04:40 PM | #181 |
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An Idea to brainstorm : Converting x-window to simpler text oriented GUI
Hi Hawhill,
just wanted to bounce this idea, please provide your valuable comments: I have not seen your code and not much familiar with low level stuff but I assume at a high level that current code takes the pixel info from x-window system and on kindle side render it on e-ink screen. I was thinking of one enhancement if its possible/feasable to implement: See on e-ink monitor one does not care of videos or picture or colors or size of windows/menus/shapes. Only text is important. So if some program/driver can take pc screen info, and converts it into a very simple text based gui windows...and then sends those simplified pixels to kindle to show. It will be very less info and should show very clean and fast on kindle. The large pc screen can be scaled to 6 or 9 inch screen, still showing text info nicely. Now I am not sure where this code will interface with OS, but it has to be somewhere at graphics driver level (before x-window info is converted into pixels) Do you (or anyone in this forum with knowledge of low level graphics stuff) comment if this is possible and what all would be needed to code this? Thanks a lot, Sohel |
08-08-2012, 04:56 PM | #182 |
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What you describe sounds like a new render target for GTK or QT. But then it's more complicated. Applications will certainly need to be adapted. It would most certainly not be possible to each only text drawing from applications that were designed with the full possibilities of the framework in mind. This is especially true for the slightest more complex applications that define their own UI elements, say for example a color chooser (OK, bad example in this context) or scrolling elements.
But then, the premise is only partly correct. The software presented in this thread is only the displaying end for a well established protocol to transmit the contents and changes of that contents of a framebuffer (a) and to transmit keyboard strokes and pointing device actions to the other end. This is the viewing and input device action transmitting part of that. For the remote end, there are many possibilities. In fact, running a virtual desktop had always been my own preferred application (that would be Usage of Xvnc - not x11vnc) on the server side. And most applications would work without problems. For recognizing elements and eliminating grayscale fuzziness, running the desktop with a high-contrast theme worked well enough. That said, I don't think it's worth the effort. Or to put it differently: If you manage to adapt a framework enough to do this, that would be a lot of work. Using it via VNC would be a niche then, running these applications directly on the Kindle would be the most appealing applications of such a framework adaption. TL;DR: Hard work, UI behaviour is probably not so well abstractable as you might think, status quo works well enough. |
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09-22-2012, 01:26 PM | #183 | |
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Quote:
virtual monitor with 1200X824 resolution using zonescreen, and set it in portrait mode, the connect to it via tightvnc, turns out there is a big blank area down the screen. It would be great if you could fix this. Thank you! |
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09-22-2012, 10:09 PM | #184 |
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I am using this daily, it works wonderfully. I just wish the refresh rate can be controlled. But knowing eink is slow, the delay is understandable.
Thank you for the wonderful work! |
09-24-2012, 02:00 PM | #185 | |
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Quote:
Sorry, turns out to be my setting is wrong. The program works perfectly! Thank you so much! |
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10-05-2012, 10:02 AM | #186 |
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Update: Support for 8bpp framebuffers, this means K4/K5! Please go ahead and test. Launchpad integration probably doesn't make sense there, and I don't know the devices enough to provide a proper substitute using whatever means there are available on those devices. Glad to include what you come up with, though! ZIP-Archive in the OP is updated and github sources are up-to-date.
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10-05-2012, 10:11 AM | #187 |
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nice. will test now
(extra points for porting gnuboy) hehehehe |
10-05-2012, 10:15 AM | #188 |
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Erm, right, gnuboy shouldn't prove to be much more difficult either. Well, I think I just give it a try right now...
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10-05-2012, 10:23 AM | #189 | |
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Gnuboy: sweeet!!! : )
Re the shell thingy Quote:
K5 /Proc (minus the numbers) Code:
kmsg
kpagecount
kpageflags
latency_stats
loadavg
locks
mac_addr
mac_sec
meminfo
misc
modules
mounts
net
pagetypeinfo
asound panel_id
atags partitions
bd postmode
board_id sched_debug
bootglobals schedstat
bootmode sdma
buddyinfo self
bus slabinfo
cmdline softirqs
config.gz stat
cpu swaps
cpuinfo sys
crypto sysvipc
devices tcpreset
diskstats timer_list
dma-engine touch
driver tty
execdomains uptime
fb usid
filesystems version
fs vmallocinfo
interrupts vmstat
iomem wan
ioports wf
irq whitney_button
kallsyms zoneinfo
Last edited by twobob; 10-05-2012 at 10:25 AM. Reason: layout - which is still terrible, but there it is |
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10-05-2012, 10:37 AM | #190 |
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this is possibly a KDX/K3-ism. Maybe start trying without the wrapper shell script?
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10-05-2012, 10:41 AM | #191 |
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oh sure. this wasn't a deal breaker. just reporting back mate
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10-05-2012, 10:45 AM | #192 | |
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yeah. No. you have the same issue I have with Doom.
Xorg is killing it. It's there (but hidden) killall Xorg reveals it for an instant. but then it is gone again. Heh, yup exactly the same issue. Hmm.. interesting. EDIT: That's Without wrapper Quote:
Last edited by twobob; 10-05-2012 at 10:48 AM. Reason: added output so Hawhill could see what I did |
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10-05-2012, 10:58 AM | #193 |
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Looks good. Well, with a full blown X server under the hood, I'd possibly prefer some readily available X-based VNC viewer anyway... So there probably isn't much of a use case for the K5/KPW.
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10-05-2012, 11:00 AM | #194 |
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but. as with prboom it *does* work via vnc (showing vnc somewhat ironically)
pictured: It working via vnc. however, the screen on the device is NOT updated with that info. Hope that helps. so, to recap, we still need to be able to disable the Xorg hold of the framebuffer gracefully. Last edited by twobob; 10-05-2012 at 11:03 AM. |
10-05-2012, 11:04 AM | #195 |
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I test my native mode apps in K4/K5 diags SSH, to avoid fighting with Xorg. For touchscreen testing, there is a diag menu item that locks the touchscreen so it does trigger accidental menu selections.
Because the K4/K5 have at least two full screens that can fit in the framebuffer, and there is a /sys/ file you can poke to set the starting Y position, you can scroll to the second buffer for native mode and use that, while everything else uses the hidden first page at offset 0 in the framebuffer. That way Xorg stays on the other side of the "fence", so no problems (but it still needs to be tested)... I gave twobob a little screen scroller script that demos that /sys/ file. |
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