Open Source dash display - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: darkspr1te
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2023, 07:09:39 pm
content: Well as per the title I am starting a project on building a really suable LCD based dash replacement.This has come about as two good friends have the same need , one has a car he got with zero dash (made from compressed card and ants ate it all :-p ) and the other wants to trail competition his late fathers car and needs a better visual feed back (rpm more important than speed, temps/engine status more important than rpm)I've been dipping my hacking hands into a lot of ECU systems over the years from hacking suzuki/gm ecu's to dumping OBD readers that self destruct so I understand the tech in use on both side there and have also been re-wiring cars for years , Any they are my so called bona fides.The reason for my post is i've hit a the proverbial compatibility wall , or at least my choice in H/W & S/W that i see for my use to remain open source is well a problem. Many of the graphical systems i want to use have issues ,Some are open source only to a part and now more modern versions are closed source.Some reply on specific hardware for the benefits (Beagle bone in built VR gfx with outdated blobs , Nvidia cuda - outdated blobs ) which means either old builds, NDA's and suchH/w must be able to provide a fast booting method or one should be easy to develop (removal of drivers/support for unneeded items , streamlining any u-boot/kernal cross overs like re-enabling enabled h/w like lcd's, usb etc)project goal is write using something usable across h/w with 3.4 kernels up to 5 in order to re-use a bit of e-waste and reply on the device h/w for acceleration but via a more common API for later progression, try and avoid kernels not in main line(fail here already based on current e-waste)Onto my Question which am having a hard time answering for the linux worldwhat graphics engine should i use , I started with qt5 but further up it broke totally and a lot of re-writes need for 6 as well as logins and such kill that quick. I did think about just pure framebuffer use but i will loose any h/w speed provided and with some older h/w that is a must as they will struggle.We dont want 3d graphics but cleardisplays and maybe later if the hard can handle some then have the choice to add it.I see mesa, vulken, x11, wayland , qt(x) and more when i search on the hardware in hand or in general but it's not helping me answer what graphics engines cross over h/w type and across a lot of kernels and can have support for h/w based acceleration (within reason of closed blobs updated support of kernels etc)any one make a suggestion and why ?darkspr1te

author: Daixiwen
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2023, 07:23:06 am
content: Maybe look at the graphics part ofSDL? It works on a lot of different targets and supports hardware acceleration AFAIK

author: darkspr1te
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2023, 07:44:10 am
content: Ah, sdl was one of the one supported across most device. thankyou, i will look into it .darkspr1te

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 27, 2023, 04:22:58 pm
content: Running SDL 2 with kmsdrm will let you run using a really minimal userspace: no X or Wayland needed at all, and you can strip off almost all services and implement your own static init for really fast bootup.