= KMSCON =
+
Kmscon is a simple terminal emulator based on linux kernel mode setting (KMS).
It is an attempt to replace the in-kernel VT implementation with a userspace
-console.
+console. See kmscon(1) man-page for usage information.
+
+Website:
+ http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/kmscon
== Requirements ==
+
Kmscon requires the following software:
- - libdrm: accessing the kernel graphics layer
- - mesa: providing an OpenGL implementation (must be compiled with EGL, gbm
- and GL libraries)
- - udev: providing input device hotplug
- - libxkbcommon: keyboard handling
- - glib: only for Unicode handling
- - One of:
- - freetype2: drawing generic text
- - pango: drawing text with pango (use --enable-pango)
- Pango requires: glib, cairo, pangocairo, pango and freetype2
+ - libtsm: terminal emulator state machine
+ http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/kmscon/libtsm/
+ - libudev: providing input, video, etc. device hotplug support (>=v172)
+ http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/
+ - libxkbcommon: providing internationalized keyboard handling
+ http://xkbcommon.org/
+ - libdrm: graphics access to DRM/KMS subsystem
+ - linux-headers: linux kernel headers for ABI definitions
+
+ Everything else is optional:
+
+ For video output at least one of the following is required:
+ - fbdev: For framebuffer video output the kernel headers must be installed
+ and located in the default include path.
+ - DRM: For unaccelerated drm output the "libdrm" library must be installed
+ and accessible via pkg-config.
+ - OpenGLES2: For accelerated video output via OpenGLESv2 the following must
+ be installed: libdrm, libgbm, egl, glesv2 (i.e., mesa)
+
+ For font handling the following is required:
+ - 8x16: The 8x16 font is a static built-in font which does not require
+ external dependencies.
+ - unifont: Static font without external dependencies.
+ - pango: drawing text with pango
+ Pango requires: glib, pango, fontconfig, freetype2 and more
+
+ For multi-seat support you need the following packages:
+ - systemd: Actually only the systemd-logind daemon and library is required.
+
+== Download ==
+
+Released tarballs can be found at:
+ http://www.freedesktop.org/software/kmscon/releases
== Install ==
+
To compile the kmscon binary, run the standard autotools commands:
- $ ./configure [--enable-debug] [--enable-pango]
+ $ test -f ./configure || NOCONFIGURE=1 ./autogen.sh
+ $ ./configure
$ make
$ make install
To compile the test applications, run:
$ make check
+ If you want only a very basic kmscon program without any major dependencies,
+ use:
+ $ ./configure --with-video=fbdev,drm2d --with-renderers= --with-fonts=unifont --disable-multi-seat --with-sessions=dummy,terminal
+ However, you will loose a lot of functionality by dropping all dependencies.
+
+ The following configure options are available. If build-time dependencies
+ cannot be satisfied, an option is automatically turned off, except if you
+ explicitly enable it via command line:
+ --enable-multi-seat: This requires the systemd-logind library to provide
+ multi-seat support for kmscon. [default: on]
+ --enable-debug: Enable debug mode/messages [default: on]
+ --enable-optimizations: Enable code optimizations [default: on]
+
+ Backends for several subsystems in kmscon can be selected with the following
+ options (all of them take a comma-separated list of backend names):
+ --with-video: Video backens. Available backends are:
+ - fbdev: Linux fbdev video backend
+ - drm2d: Linux DRM software-rendering backend
+ - drm3d: Linux DRM hardware-rendering backend
+ Default is: fbdev,drm2d,drm3d
+ --with-fonts: Font renderers. Available backends are:
+ - unifont: Static built-in non-scalable font (Unicode Unifont)
+ - pango: Pango based scalable font renderer
+ Default is: unifont,pango
+ The 8x16 backend is always built-in.
+ --with-renderers: Console rendering backends. Available are:
+ - bbulk: Simple 2D software-renderer (bulk-mode)
+ - gltex: OpenGLESv2 accelerated renderer
+ - pixman: pixman based renderer
+ Default is: bbulk,gltex
+ The bblit backend is always built-in.
+ --with-sessions: Built in sessions. Available sessions are:
+ - dummy: Dummy fallback session
+ - terminal: Terminal-emulator sessions
+
+== Running ==
+
+ To get usage information, run:
+ $ ./kmscon --help
+ You can then run kmscon with:
+ $ ./kmscon [options]
+
+ For debug output use "--debug". For verbose output use "--verbose".
+ With "--xkb-layout=<lang>" you can switch the keyboard layout.
+ See "man kmscon" / kmscon(1) for more information.
+
== License ==
- This software is licensed under the terms of the MIT license. Please see
+
+ This software is licensed under the terms of an MIT-like license. Please see
./COPYING for further information.
== FAQ ==
- === Why didn't you use libvte or similar terminal emulators? ===
- All existing terminal emulators I found highly depend on X. Also, their code
- base often is a horrible mess. I haven't had the time to convert them to use
- other drawing functions than Xlib, yet.
- If you feel like doing this work, please notify me. I would be glad to adjust
- my code to work with other terminal emulators.
+
+ Please see: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/kmscon
== Contact ==
+
This software is maintained by:
- David Herrmann <dh.herrmann@googlemail.com>
+ David Herrmann <dh.herrmann@gmail.com>
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact one of the maintainers.
-
-== Code Base ==
- The kmscon code is split into several independent subsystems:
- - output:
- This code manages the KMS/DRI output and provides OpenGL framebuffers.
- - console:
- This draws the text on the screen and provides an API for any terminal
- emulator to visualize its contents.
- - eloop:
- Main loop implementation.
- - log:
- Log file handling.
- - unicode:
- Provides basic Unicode handling.
- - font:
- Font loading, caching and drawing operations.
- - input:
- All linux input events are captured here and converted to Unicode
- characters for input handling.
- - vt:
- The linux VT subsystem integration. This allows to run the application in
- a classic linux VT like X does.
- - vte:
- The terminal emulator library.
- - terminal:
- Connects the console, output, input and vte handling into a real terminal.
- - main:
- This connects all subsystems into a usable console application.