Does anyone use Weston on the Raspberry Pi?

[Bryce Harrington]

On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 07:53:03AM -0500, Derek Foreman wrote:
> 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 can make mention of it being on life support in the 1.11 notes.  Then
when 1.12 opens we could yank it, and have a full cycle to listen for
complaints.

Bryce