Does anyone use Weston on the Raspberry Pi?

[Derek Foreman]

On 11/05/16 03:28 AM, Pekka Paalanen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> it has been a very long time since anything has happened with Weston's
> rpi-backend. This is the (only) Weston backend using a proprietary API,
> for Raspberry Pi it is the DispmanX API.
> 
> I have heard reports that the rpi-backend has been a lot more not
> working than working, allegedly because of firmware issues.
> 
> I haven't tried it myself for a long time, but sounds like I wouldn't
> have much luck in checking if the rpi-backend would still be ok. I
> might be able to dig up an ancient sd-card image where I originally
> developed the rpi-backend and test with that, but it seems useless if
> no-one else doing the same, and if it won't work on recent images
> anyway.
> 
> Is anyone using Weston with the rpi-backend on a Raspberry Pi?

Last time I tested it (on RPI2) it would run at 30fps when using
offscreen compositing or hard lock at about 4 windows when using direct
to screen compositing.  Really unacceptable either way. :/

I also recall once you crossed a certain number of windows, the
offscreen compositing had visual anomalies.

> Would you be upset if I deleted the whole rpi-backend right now?
> 
> The rpi-backend is a dead end anyway, because the work in the kernel and
> Mesa to support the Raspberry Pi is progressing, and eventually you
> will be able to use the standard DRM-backend of Weston. But, I hear the
> DRM support is not quite completely there yet, so deleting the
> rpi-backend might cause a support gap in Weston releases.

I think there's also another issue at play, my recollection is that the
video decoder blobs require the use of the openGL blob.

I think 3D accel works with Mesa now (not sure if that's upstream, but
it's available), KMS works for setting modes, but if you want to use the
video decoders with the open stuff you're in trouble. :(

> So, does anyone care about keeping up with Weston releases if you use
> it on a Raspberry Pi?
> 
> If you do care, it does work for you, and you would like to keep on
> updating Weston, would you be able to test Weston patches from the
> mailing list?

It would be really nice if someone would pick up this torch.  Someone
saying "Hey, I actually use this and it does work" would go a long way
to keeping it in the repo.

If we don't pull the plug for this release, we should at least flag it
deprecated in some way so people can't say they didn't see it coming?

> I have a lot to do, and I would prefer to not invest effort in code
> no-one is using, that is tagged for removal in the future anyway.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> pq
> 
> 
> 
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