Re: Arcan [0.5.1] on FreeBSD/KMS

[Adrian Chadd]

Hey, this looks really cool!


-a


On 5 September 2016 at 06:25, bbjowhn .  wrote:
> I'm guessing most of you seeing this post aren't too familiar with the
> project, so I'll start with something of a synopsis.
>
> Arcan is a mix between a streaming realtime graphics (and audio) processor,
> a game engine and a display server. It has been in development under the
> radar for about a decade, patiently awaiting the time where lower level
> access to accelerated graphics hardware starts becoming bearable.
>
> As a display server, it has most of the hardcore features in place since a
> while back, i.e. hot-pluggable multi-displays with different orientation,
> mixed densities and subpixel layout, mouse, keyboard, game devices,
> trackpads, crash recovery, suspend and resume, clipboard, screen sharing,
> streaming and so on.
>
> One of the key differences to say, X.org is that the role of the 'window
> manager' has been moved into an authoritative Lua VM and it's the scripts
> (or collection of scripts) that you chose to run which defines permitted
> behaviour in terms of input and output routing and response. This also
> means that it can fit many roles: display manager, virtual terminals or
> just an image viewer if that's all you need -- with a pretty compact set of
> dependencies.
>
> Among its downsides: it's still missing an external protocol (though
> there's an internal one used for process separation of sensitive tasks, for
> providing a terminal and compatibility with some specific targets of
> personal importance, like QEmu and --hopefully soon-- Bhyve) so
> compatibility options are still limited. The simple reason being that I am
> waiting to see which one of the available ones (X, Spice, Mir, Wayland,
> ...) turns out to be the least painful option :-)
>
> Starting with the version in the subject (0.5.1), it's up and running on
> FreeBSD with an input driver using syscons/sysmouse (and respective
> keymaps). The reason I'm bothering people here is simply that I'm looking
> for more people interested in hammering out the details with the BSD
> integration and packaging.
>
> There is so much more to cover -- but if anyone is curious hare are some
> points of reference:
>
> Documentation on internals (including FreeBSD setup specifics) roadmaps,
> etc:
> https://arcan-fe.com and https://github.com/letoram/arcan/wiki
>
> A 'talking slide' high-level presentation:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07nqZIFRDJg
>
> A 'toy' desktop environment from a few years ago showing some of the crazy
> things that can be done:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O40cPUqLbU
>
> The more serious desktop environment ('durden') that I am using myself:
> https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGqpKIeZOSp6quf6CmMOr91Tmj4UppyoR
>
> Regards,
>  Björn
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Arcan [0.5.1] on FreeBSD/KMS

[bbjowhn .]

I'm guessing most of you seeing this post aren't too familiar with the
project, so I'll start with something of a synopsis.

Arcan is a mix between a streaming realtime graphics (and audio) processor,
a game engine and a display server. It has been in development under the
radar for about a decade, patiently awaiting the time where lower level
access to accelerated graphics hardware starts becoming bearable.

As a display server, it has most of the hardcore features in place since a
while back, i.e. hot-pluggable multi-displays with different orientation,
mixed densities and subpixel layout, mouse, keyboard, game devices,
trackpads, crash recovery, suspend and resume, clipboard, screen sharing,
streaming and so on.

One of the key differences to say, X.org is that the role of the 'window
manager' has been moved into an authoritative Lua VM and it's the scripts
(or collection of scripts) that you chose to run which defines permitted
behaviour in terms of input and output routing and response. This also
means that it can fit many roles: display manager, virtual terminals or
just an image viewer if that's all you need -- with a pretty compact set of
dependencies.

Among its downsides: it's still missing an external protocol (though
there's an internal one used for process separation of sensitive tasks, for
providing a terminal and compatibility with some specific targets of
personal importance, like QEmu and --hopefully soon-- Bhyve) so
compatibility options are still limited. The simple reason being that I am
waiting to see which one of the available ones (X, Spice, Mir, Wayland,
...) turns out to be the least painful option :-)

Starting with the version in the subject (0.5.1), it's up and running on
FreeBSD with an input driver using syscons/sysmouse (and respective
keymaps). The reason I'm bothering people here is simply that I'm looking
for more people interested in hammering out the details with the BSD
integration and packaging.

There is so much more to cover -- but if anyone is curious hare are some
points of reference:

Documentation on internals (including FreeBSD setup specifics) roadmaps,
etc:
https://arcan-fe.com and https://github.com/letoram/arcan/wiki

A 'talking slide' high-level presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07nqZIFRDJg

A 'toy' desktop environment from a few years ago showing some of the crazy
things that can be done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O40cPUqLbU

The more serious desktop environment ('durden') that I am using myself:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGqpKIeZOSp6quf6CmMOr91Tmj4UppyoR

Regards,
 Björn
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