[Libdlo] (Re-sending) Finally....

[Phil Endecott]

[I'm re-sending this message that I sent on Friday to 
libdlo at libdlo.freedesktop.org - if it hasn't been done already, can 
someone please correct the address in the "Welcome" message?]

Dear List,

I am very, very pleased to see that this has finally happened.

I know the founders of DislayLink well, and back in 2004-2005 I did
some contract work for them; I designed the memory controller hardware
in their first product.  Right from that time I was hoping that they
would publish enough documentation for someone (e.g. me) to write a
Linux driver.  I remember on one of the last days that I worked for
them I took in this contraption:

    http://chezphil.org/slugterm/

to show them what I was being forced to use, since I couldn't use their
hardware.

I have considered reverse-engineering the protocol a few times, but I
thought it best not to in case I could be accused of having inside
information; actually I never knew much in detail about the protocol.

So.... now, we have a library.  What to do first?  Well I think that
"slugterm plus" will be one of my first things, i.e. a simple text
terminal that I can connect to my NSLU2 or a similar device.  I see
that Sven Killig has already done something like this using the
reverse-engineered driver.

Another idea I have had is a "console copier", i.e. when you plug in
the display the contents of the system console is copied to it from
/dev/vcs.  I can imagine this being used in places where you currently
need either a KVM switch or a serial console server.

An interesting question is whether something like a terminal would be
better implemented in the kernel; currently it would need some magic
to implement terminal emulation in user-space over libusb and have that
appear as /dev/ttyX.  I have a feeling there is a "FUSE for char devices"
project that could supply the necessary magic, but it may be better
just to put it in the kernel.

Over the last couple of years I have done a lot of work on digital
picture frames, using DirectFB.  It would be great to see a DirectFB
backend for libdlo.

I imagine that a VNC viewer will be on someone's to-do list.  It should
be quite straightforward.  An interesting question is whether a
DisplayLink-optimised VNC viewer plus XVnc would perform as well as a
DisplayLink-optimised X server.

What do other people plan to do?

(Oh, and I guess that first I need to buy some hardware.  Would anyone
like to share any thoughts on the Samsung mini monitor and the MiMos?)


Regards,   Phil.