iLiad Problems porting GTK apps

[robinwatts]

Hi all,

I've just been given an iRex Iliad and told to port an app to it. I can't really say what the app is (commerical reasons etc), but suffice to say it works on many different mobile platforms already.

One of the targets for the build is desktop linux using GTK, so I figured it shouldn't be too hard to get up and running.

Sadly, I'm getting very strange results; sometimes the window appears, sometimes it doesn't. When it does appear, sometimes the window is empty, sometimes the contents of the window are shifted around the place.

I've produced a cutdown test app to show the problems I'm experiencing... any hints anyone can give would be gratefully received, cos I'm running out of ideas...

I'm using firmware 2.12, with a copy of the devkit I downloaded the other day. Other apps (such as Gargoyle and Dillo) seem to run fine, just not those I've built myself. Has anyone else experienced such problems?

I attach the text of main.c below, and I compile it using the following script:

#!/bin/sh

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/arm/oe/arm-linux/lib/pkgconfig
arm-linux-gcc `pkg-config --cflags gtk+-2.0` main.c -o gtk-test `pkg-config --libs gtk+-2.0` -Wl,-rpath /usr/local/arm/oe/arm-linux/lib
arm-linux-strip gtk-test

#include "assert.h"

#include <gtk/gtk.h>
#include <gdk/gdkkeysyms.h>
#include <glib.h>
#include <gdk/gdkx.h>

#define Alien_DisplayWidth 768
#define Alien_DisplayHeight 1024

static void destroy(GtkObject *object,
                    gpointer   data)
{
    gtk_main_quit();
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    GtkWidget *topLevel;
    GtkWidget *vbox;
    GtkWidget *dArea = NULL;

    /* Start GTK */
    gtk_set_locale();
    gtk_init(&argc, &argv);

    /* Create a window, set it to full size, and hook up the destroy */
    topLevel = gtk_window_new(GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
    gtk_widget_set_usize(topLevel,
                         Alien_DisplayWidth,
                         Alien_DisplayHeight);
    gtk_signal_connect(GTK_OBJECT(topLevel), "destroy",
                       GTK_SIGNAL_FUNC(destroy), NULL);

    gtk_widget_set_events(topLevel, GDK_EXPOSURE_MASK);

    /* Create a drawable area in that window */
    vbox = gtk_vbox_new(FALSE, 0);
    gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(topLevel), vbox);
    dArea = gtk_drawing_area_new();
    gtk_drawing_area_size(GTK_DRAWING_AREA(dArea),
                          Alien_DisplayWidth,
                          Alien_DisplayHeight);
    gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(vbox), dArea, TRUE, TRUE, 0);

    /* Create the window */
    gtk_widget_realize(topLevel);
    gtk_widget_show_all(topLevel);

    /* Make a bitmap and fill the drawing area with it */
    {
	unsigned char *p;
	int x, y;
        unsigned char *rgbBitmap = calloc(Alien_DisplayWidth*Alien_DisplayHeight, 3);

        if(rgbBitmap == NULL)
        {
            printf("Failed to allocate temporary bitmap!\n");
            exit(1);
        }

        p = rgbBitmap;
        for(y = 0; y < Alien_DisplayHeight; y++)
        {
            for (x = 0; x < Alien_DisplayWidth; x++)
            {
                *p++ = 256*y/Alien_DisplayHeight;
                *p++ = 256*x/Alien_DisplayWidth;
                *p++ = p[-1];
            }
        }
        p = rgbBitmap;
        for (x = 0; x < Alien_DisplayWidth; x++)
        {
            *p++ = 255;
            *p++ = 255;
            *p++ = 255;
        }
        for (y = 1; y < Alien_DisplayHeight; y++)
        {
            *p++ = 255;
            *p++ = 255;
            *p++ = 255;
            p += (Alien_DisplayWidth-2)*3;
            *p++ = 0;
            *p++ = 0;
            *p++ = 0;
        }
        for (x = 0; x < Alien_DisplayWidth; x++)
        {
            *--p = 0;
            *--p = 0;
            *--p = 0;
        }

        gdk_rgb_init();
        gdk_draw_rgb_image(dArea->window,
                           dArea->style->fg_gc[GTK_STATE_NORMAL],
                           0, 0, Alien_DisplayWidth, Alien_DisplayHeight,
                           GDK_RGB_DITHER_NONE,
                           rgbBitmap, Alien_DisplayWidth*3);
    }

    assert( dArea->window != NULL );

    /* MAIN LOOP */
    gtk_main();

    assert( dArea->window == NULL );

    gtk_exit(0);

    return 0;
}

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Robin

[alanine]

GTK+ alone doesn't do screen refreshes for the e-ink screen.

Have a look at liberdm/erdm.h, link liberdm and use dmDisplay(...) to refresh screen.

You may want to study ipdf source as an example in detail.

[robinwatts]

Originally Posted by alanine

GTK+ alone doesn't do screen refreshes for the e-ink screen.

Have a look at liberdm/erdm.h, link liberdm and use dmDisplay(...) to refresh screen.

You may want to study ipdf source as an example in detail.

Thanks for this. I've now got displaying working OK. Next thing is to figure out how to detect the hardware buttons, and how to hide the toolbar along the bottom.

Hopefully the ipdf source will help for that.

Thanks!

Robin

[daudi]

There are probably other places to look but this thread might help a bit to get started with the buttons.

[Adam B.]

You can only detect presses from the buttons on the left hand side. And to allow them to work when running from the conentlister, you'll have to set the gtk wmclass and title of the app to "sh".

You can find some info from when I first ported FBReader here: http://forum.irexnet.com/viewtopic.php?t=1110

[Luka Trifunovic]

Maybe it would be better to make some kind of "driver" that will refresh screen whenever something new should be displayed. It is better solution than to modify code for each application.

[Antartica]

Originally Posted by Luka Trifunovic

Maybe it would be better to make some kind of "driver" that will refresh screen whenever something new should be displayed. It is better solution than to modify code for each application.

That's the idea of the xepdmgr daemon that I mentioned in the other thread, but that leaves unsolved the problem of the hardware buttons (they are directed to the window with class "sh"... so an unmodified app would not receive the button presses).