The Modern Linux Graphics Stack on Embedded Systems
summary
Modern embedded Linux can use Wayland + Mesa + DRM to save memory bandwidth: Weston’s DRM backend uses atomic mode-setting (drm atomic commit), supports dma-buf import, overlay planes and format modifiers, and sends full‑screen surfaces directly without GPU compositing. Limitations: GBM and Weston currently cannot place arbitrarily tiled client buffers onto output planes, and wlroots/Qt Wayland lack overlay and modifier support today. Example code paths live in Weston’s DRM backend and compositor rendering/prepare functions showing plane assignment and atomic commits.
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chapters (28)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:21User Interface for Linux Desktop
- 0:44Desktop Environment / Window Manager
- 1:31Windowing System
- 2:22Display Server
- 2:35Wayland Client xdg_shell Protocol
- 4:03Surface Composition
- 4:55Graphics Stack Overview
- 5:22What is so Special about Embedded?
- 6:01Graphics Hardware Features
- 8:26Bridging the Gap
- 8:55Linux dma-buf Framework
- 9:34Atomic Modesetting
- 10:22Videos and Pixel Formats
- 11:19Tiling and Format Modifiers
- 12:53Weston DRM Backend
- 14:04compositor-drm.c: prepare planes
- 14:57compositor-drm.cplane assignment
- 16:47DRM Features Supported by Weston
- 17:52Weston User Interface Development
- 19:48Weston Shell: Example
- 20:26Existing Weston Shells
- 21:59IVI Shell with xdg shell Support!
- 22:29IVI Shell: Architecture
- 24:51Alternatives to Weston?
- 26:27Qt Wayland Compositor
- 27:25Open Questions
- 29:28Summary
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