ghostscript?

[MartinZ]

Hi folks,

has anyone already tried (or better managed) to build ghostscript on PocketBook?

I would like to use it, to render a postscript file to a bitmap or to screen/framebuffer.

As far as i understood the ghostscript documentation, a build without X11/gtk should be possible, if device X11 is deactivated in the makefile.
Some features could be deactivated as well - for i do not need pdf-functionality and only basic postscript features.

But I fear, that i am not experienced enough to make ghostscript cross-compile for ARM.

Any experience?

[rkomar]

ghostscript looks to be a real pain to build. Maybe you could try building ImageMagick (or GraphicsMagick) instead. It can convert postscript to other formats.

[bense2k]

I was able to build ImageMagick some time ago, but as far as i know ImageMagick needs ghostscript to convert postscript files. I build it with limited features dont remember which formats were integrated.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by bense2k

I was able to build ImageMagick some time ago, but as far as i know ImageMagick needs ghostscript to convert postscript files. I build it with limited features dont remember which formats were integrated.

Thanks for that info. I went ahead and tried to build ghostscript myself. I couldn't do it using the cross compilers (it would have taken more effort than I wanted to put into it). I built it under LoneTech's qemu-based ARM system, but found that it wouldn't run on the PocketBook because the libc version was too old on the ereader. Bah!

[MartinZ]

I built it under LoneTech's qemu-based ARM system, but found that it wouldn't run on the PocketBook because the libc version was too old on the ereader. Bah!

oh, that doesn't sound too encouraging.
Perhaps I'll try it my self anyhow. But I think of changing the document generating source application inside my project (that i did not write myself), so that it does not generate postscript docs but instead writes directly to the screen.

But anyway - it would be quite useful to get ghostscript running on PB.

[rkomar]

I got it to build last night, but haven't tested it yet. I downloaded the qemu image file for debian lenny that was linked to in the qemu ARM page. This distro is older than the debian sid file used by LoneTech, so it has a better chance of being compatible with what's on the PB devices. I loaded up the image with development tools, and then built ghostscript in it with the following configuration:

 $ ./configure --prefix=/mnt/ext1/system --with-fontpath=/ebrmain/fonts/ --with-fontpath=/mnt/ext1/system/fonts/ --without-ijs --disable-dbus --disable-cups --disable-gtk --disable-sse2 --without-libidn --without-libpaper --without-pdftoraster --without-x --without-jbig2dec --without-jasper --without-omni --with-drivers=FILES

After it built, I created a directory in tmp, and did the install there:

mkdir /tmp/gs
make install DESTDIR=/tmp/gs

I then went in and pruned out the man pages, examples and whatnot that wasn't required, and tarred up everything else. Hopefully, it should just unpack into /mnt/ext1/system on the reader and "just work".

Edit: It worked! I was able to produce a grayscale tiff from a colour postscript file.

[MartinZ]

Edit: It worked! I was able to produce a grayscale tiff from a colour postscript file.

wow, rkomar!

This sounds great.

[rkomar]

Yes, it should come in handy when cross-compiling is too difficult. You can also just copy many utility programs from there to the PB (same as for many programs in LoneTech's Debian squeeze/sid image). In the default qemu mode, the host OS is at IP address 10.0.2.2, so you can scp files to and fro inside the guest using that address. That's how I got the ghostscript sources onto the image, and copied off the binary files afterwards. The build process is slow under emulation, but dependable.