DirectFB

Supports:

  • Hardware YUV overlays
  • OpenGL - software only
  • 2D/3D accelerations (depends on directfb driver)
  • multiple displays
  • windows

What you need:

  • DirectFB 1.0.1, 1.2.x, 1.3.0
  • Kernel-Framebuffer support: required: vesafb, radeonfb ....
  • Mesa 7.0.x - optional for OpenGL

The /etc/directfbrc file should contain the following lines to make your joystick work and avoid crashes:

disable-module=joystick
disable-module=cle266
disable-module=cyber5k
no-linux-input-grab

To disable to use x11 backend when DISPLAY variable is found use

export SDL_DIRECTFB_X11_CHECK=0

To disable the use of linux input devices, i.e. multimice/multikeyboard support, use

export SDL_DIRECTFB_LINUX_INPUT=0

To use hardware accelerated YUV-overlays for YUV-textures, use:

export SDL_DIRECTFB_YUV_DIRECT=1

This is disabled by default. It will only support one YUV texture, namely the first. Every other YUV texture will be rendered in software.

In addition, you may use (directfb-1.2.x)

export SDL_DIRECTFB_YUV_UNDERLAY=1

to make the YUV texture an underlay. This will make the cursor to be shown.

Simple Window Manager

The driver has support for a very, very basic window manager you may want to use when running with wm=default. Use

export SDL_DIRECTFB_WM=1

to enable basic window borders. In order to have the window title rendered, you need to have the following font installed:

/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont/FreeSans.ttf

OpenGL Support

The following instructions will give you software OpenGL. However this works at least on all directfb supported platforms.

As of this writing 20100802 you need to pull Mesa from git and do the following:

git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/mesa/mesa
cd mesa
git checkout 2c9fdaf7292423c157fc79b5ce43f0f199dd753a

Edit configs/linux-directfb so that the Directories-section looks like this:

# Directories
SRC_DIRS     = mesa glu
GLU_DIRS     = sgi
DRIVER_DIRS  = directfb
PROGRAM_DIRS =

Then do the following:

make linux-directfb
make

echo Installing - please enter sudo pw.

sudo make install INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/dfb_GL
cd src/mesa/drivers/directfb
make
sudo make install INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/dfb_GL

To run the SDL - testprograms:

export SDL_VIDEODRIVER=directfb
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/dfb_GL/lib
export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/dfb_GL/libGL.so.7

./testgl