LCL on framebuffer (without X)

[pleumann]

Hello,

is it possible to build a Lazarus app for a Linux (embedded) system that does not run a full-blown X server? Can the LCL render directly into the framebuffer?

Cheers
Joerg

[Thaddy]

I only used the framebuffer directly with FPC on Raspberry Pie's.
(I wrote some demo's that are possibly still available from the RPI websites somewhere, translated C code to Freepascal.)
But, probably, yes, although it might prove to be a mammoth task.
In effect writing a kind of X. But Possible.

A good starting point is possibly the custom drawn widget set.

[lagprogramming]

Have a look at MSEide/MSEgui. For now it can't do that either but compared to LCL's customdrawn, MSEgui is much closer to achieving that.
https://github.com/mse-org/mseide-msegui
Unfortunately, at the moment, unlike LCL, MSEgui is not able to save forms to bitmaps, which is something very important for MSEgui. Much more important than it is for LCL.

[zeljko]

Qt5 an qt6 ws should support framebuffer via platform integration driver

[pleumann]

Thanks for the responses!

The application already exists using LCL, so a complete rewrite using a different UI library is probably not an option.

We'll have a look at the Qt and custom widgets options.

Google also got me some references to "GTK on frame buffer", but they are all very old (like, 10 years or so). Is that still a thing or has it ever been?