Hi, linux programmers,

I need to write some C or C++ code that (on some events) displays a png file on fullscreen. Preferably without X, on the framebuffer. I found fbida and fbv, but:

• it doesn't seem too simple how they do it
• I can't even compile the code of neither of them, I get tons of errors
• the license is GPL. I'd prefer BSD or LGPL so I could use their code or simply use their libs. In this case GPL is good only to learn how this is done, so I could then write my own code

Can you give me any directions or examples how to do this? Decoding png could be probably accomplished with libpng, which is LGPL. I'm more concerned about displaying the image on framebuffer. If really, really necessary, I could use X, but I'm trying to avoid using X at all costs here.

Thanks for any help.

If you do have to use X, then you might look into the framebuffer server, or possibly a non-XFree86/XOrg distro, to reduce the overhead.

You can certainly do this. DirectFB (LGPL) should be up to the job I think.

Alternatively, it would probably be easier, and more portable, to write your program using the SDL library, which takes care of a lot of the hassles for you.

Another option is fbi (GPL) or ppmtofb (GPL, more specifically fbview) which you could shell out to to show the image. (There's a legal minefield here as to whether this counts as linking or not; one possibility is to make the viewer configurable but I'm not a legal expert and I don't know if that will get you out of trouble).

Yet another option is to write a kernel module to do it (after decompressing the PNG in userspace); you'll find an entire pixmap-drawing library in drivers/video/cfbimgblt.c

You might also want to try searching on freshmeat.net

Thank you very much. I went for SDL, it seems fast enough. Got some huge problems (I'm an SDL newbie) with enabling fb in debian sarge and geting SDL_Init to succeed without mouse, but got it now.

Hello!

I'm sorry about reliving an old thread but I have the same problem.
I need a program in C that displays fullscreen images.

mic can you help me?!

Hi contente,

if you are doing this without X as I did, you need framebuffer support in kernel. Look for options CONFIG_FB* when you configure the kernel.

Install SDL and SDL_image.

If you will use framebuffer and are missing fb0 device node, create it:
I had some difficulties (lockups, errors, can't remember what exactly) because I didn't have a mouse attached. I had to set this environment variable before running my SDL program.
For info about writing C code that works with SDL, see the documentation on SDL website. There should be some example code, like Hello World.

SVGALIB is a quite archaic piece of code, but not as complex as SDL, and it runs without X. It not used often these days, but if your interest in rather in learning the concept, then it's maybe worth a look.

As of the license: You can use GPL code and libs, unless you intend to go commercial with code written by others. Even then you can link your application to shared GPL libraries. Only advantage of LGPL for commercial purposes is that you can link them statically if the code of the library itself didn't changed.

It seems you're at the start position with your coding project. Isn't it too early to bother with licenses?

Linux Archive

As I understand, you can't use GPL code, nor link to GPL libs if your program is non free.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#IfLibraryIsGPL

Besides, only I was concerned about license and I finished my project long ago. So as far as this thread is concerned, the license issue is probably irrelevant.

Hmm, yes .. well, Apache uses it's own license and still uses the GNU C libraries. Same for OpenOffice. This is an endless topic. I never heard of Eben Moglen stressing a law suite against Apache or OpenOffice developers.

The FAQ is actually a bit vague, as it confuses the term "using a library" without going into detail on static and shared libraries. A static library becomes part of the compiled code and moves along with it. A shared library is accessed at runtime.

You could create an application that uses a shared library called 'libc' by calling a function called 'malloc' and 'free'. C, malloc and free are standard C terms and are not subject to GPL. Assume that on one system libc is provided by GPL code, on another system by BSD code or something else. Your application can be copied between those two systems, will always find a libc with the proper malloc and free implementation, so it will work. You as a developer can not be made responsible for a shared service provided on any of those systems - the same compiled code can not be illegal on one system while being legal on another one.

Note how different this is from a situation where the library is statically linked, so it becomes part of the application and does not use the libc implementation provided by the running system.

i want to use X anyone can help me?
i want to load an pnm image in full screen.