Re: Proposal for Directfb GDK library

[Matthias Clasen <mclasen redhat com>]

On Thu, 2005-11-10 at 20:40 +0100, Attilio Fiandrotti wrote:
> Hi everybody
> 
> After months of working the debian installer is finally going to be
> graphical: the debian-installer team will make announcement after Etch
> Beta1 is out.
> The graphical d-i uses a GTK frontend to interact with the user, you can
> grab the latest built ISO here
> 
> http://people.debian.org/~fjp/d-i/images/daily/gtk-miniiso/mini.iso
> (based on GTKDFB 2.0.9)
> 
> or here
> 
> https://debian.polito.it/downloads/mini_gtkdfb_2_8_3.iso (based on
> GTKDFB 2.8.3).
> 
> The debian installer makes use of GTK over DirectFrameBuffer rather than
> GTK over X since this allows us to save up some space in the
> installation cdrom.
> Actually we make use of GTKDFB version 2.0.9: altough outdated this
> GTKDFB version has proved to be stable enough for what we need to do
> (tested with vesafb on i386, AMD64 and PPC).
> Mike Emmel, who developes and maintains the GDK and CAIRO ports to DFB,
> has recently provided a working GTKDFB version 2.8.3 that we would like
> to use in the future inside d-i to replace GTKDFB 2.0.9.
> Some work still has to be done before GTKDFB 2.8.3 is stable
> enough to be used in real world use and packaged for use in d-i.
> As mike emmel said the GDK library for DFB needs to be completed and
> fixed in some parts and the code needs a general revision but he cannot
> do this all alone since he lacks time.
> Some help is needed: Mike suggested someone among those who were once
> involved in the (now dead) project of porting GTK to FrabeBuffer (GTKFB)
> could be interested in developing GTKDFB.
> Mike Emmel is also actually merging CairoDFB into Cairo mainline, so
> that it will get more exposure and will be easier to package later.
> At debian-boot we also belive that merging GDKDFB into GTK mainline
> would be good: this would give to GDKDFB exposure and will be easier
> packaging it.
> Note that ATM GDKDFB (both 2.0.9 and 2.8.3) and CAIRO DFB can be built
> only using a set of patches and non standard libraries and this make
> building and packaging very difficult.
> We (the debian-installer team) support Mike Emmel's suggestion to merge
> GDKDFB into mainline GTK since this will contribute a lot not only to
> ease building and packaging but also to attract developers willing to
> work on it.
> We belive GTKDFB will be useful not only in the d-i project, but also
> will be a valid solution for embedded GUI based systems (PDAs, mobile
> phones..) because of its lower memory overhead and hadrware resource
> requirements.
> What do you think? is anybody interested in getting involved in
> developing GDKDFB? And is there any chance GDKDFB is ever going to be
> merged into GTK mainline?
> 

It has been on the GTK+ roadmap (for 2.6, I think), but the main GDKFB
developers have been reluctant to actually make this happen.

Matthias