====== Linux Framebuffer World ======

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I like to use linux [[framebuffer]] based systems. There are not much stuff beyond image viewers, screen grabbers or the occasional terminal font in terms of software written to take advantage of the framebuffer. As i like to play with the old systems, not all of them are able to use X nowadays, slow cpu, low ram and many more aspects force me not to use X at all. It's crazy but it's enough for me do the daily basic things, like managing files, listen to music, browse the webs and do much other stuff. I'm sysadmin and it's enough for me to have just busybox, ssh with enabled networking. I have used [[framebuffer]] with [[Linux]] since 2005, also i've tried to use FreeBSD with it's framebuffer implementation and it works well for me too. There was a very nice implementation of it in gentoo but seems it have been [[https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Fbsplash|deprecated by now]]. 

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I've always used patched kernels with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Fuck_Scheduler|BFS]]/[[https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Fbsplash|fbsplash]] patches, but when the development of these where deceased, the other ones become available like [[https://github.com/sfzhi/fbterm|fbterm]] and [[https://github.com/uobikiemukot/yaft|yaft]]. These two framebuffer based terminal emulators are nice and supports various fonts, also they are able to set the background image of the terminal. You would say to me, what you can do with "that" framebuffer instead of X? Well... Lets talk about that.. 

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More than decade ago there was users who where using such time of system setup, they can be found nowadays also in some special equipments, embedded systems like ATMs/KIOSKS/billboards even in the public places. Most common is [[RaspberryPI]] running [[https://github.com/popcornmix/omxplayer|omxplayer]] video player with video acceleration built-in. There are problems like [[https://www.kraxel.org/blog/linux/fbida/|fbi]], [[https://github.com/uobikiemukot/idump|idump]], [[http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/fbi-improved/|FIM]], [[http://www.svgalib.org/rus/zgv/|zgv]] displaying images on the screen. The famous [[mplayer]] are able to play video on framebuffer too, not to mention that [[vlc]] [[https://kmandla.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/vlc-ncurses-and-the-framebuffer/|does the same]]. Text based links web browser also able to run in graphical framebuffer mode with -g parameter (if compiled with necessary build options). There are also much more powerful web browser called [[http://www.netsurf-browser.org|NetSurf]], which can be compiled with framebuffer support too. 

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NetSurf; a venerable independent web browser that has been around for nearly a decade and is available for many Platforms such as RISC OS, Amiga, BeOS/Haiku, and UNIX-like systems (For both GTK and Framebuffer front-ends).  Believe me or not, the above picture is neither photoshoped nor produced in WMs, it’s just a pic of NetSurf running on Framebuffer. The whole browser and all its dependencies roughly measures 5 MB. NetSurf utilizes no bloated Window Managers and still it supports HTML 4, CSS 2.1, HTTPS, Unicode content and many other features. Furthermore, the development seems propitious with HTML 5 and JavaScript support under progress.

**UPDATE:** NetSurf seems to be deprecated linux framebuffer support and it's broken by now. So i did some research on my own, forked, mixed, patched and crawled another browser for Linux Framebuffer! Take a look at [[https://github.com/e1z0/Framebuffer-browser|Framebuffer browser]]. It has two modes, one works without any menus or navigation controls and it's called kiosk mode. Another mode is full browser mode, that displays controls, menus and other necessary UI elements for navigation and it all works in Linux framebuffer, even eglfs is supported so webgl works too and you can play 3d games in browser too!


Of course there are also some kind of login manager [[http://qingy.sourceforge.net|qinqy]].

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====== Application list (with framebuffer support) ======
  * [[https://github.com/sfzhi/fbterm|FbTerm - a fast FrameBuffer based TERMinal emulator for linux]]
  * [[https://github.com/uobikiemukot/yaft|Yet Another Framebuffer Terminal (aka "yaft") is simple terminal emulator for minimalist]]
  * [[https://github.com/aligrudi/fbpad|A small Linux framebuffer virtual terminal]]
  * [[http://blog.startaylor.net/2016/05/30/howto-console/|gpm (mouse driver)]] sudo gpm -3 -m /dev/input/mice -t imps2
  * [[https://github.com/GunnarMonell/fbgrab|fbgrab (screenshot grabber)]]
  * [[http://jwilk.net/software/fbcat|fbcat (screenshot grabber)]]
  * [[http://www.rcdrummond.net/fbdump/|fbdump (screenshot grabber)]]
  * [[https://www.kraxel.org/blog/linux/fbida/|fbi view images and ps/pdf files]]
  * [[https://github.com/uobikiemukot/idump|idump image viewer]]
  * [[http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/fbi-improved/|FIM image viewer]]
  * [[http://www.svgalib.org/rus/zgv/|zgv image viewer]]
  * [[http://www.netsurf-browser.org|NetSurf Web browser]]
  * [[http://links.twibright.com|Links web browser]]
  * [[http://w3m.sourceforge.net|w3m]] with w3m-img (web browser)
  * [[https://alpineapp.email|Alpine Email Program]]
  * [[https://www.videolan.org/vlc/|VLC video lan player]]
  * [[http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html|Mplayer media player]]
  * [[https://github.com/aligrudi/fbff/|Small ffmpeg-based framebuffer media player]]
  * [[https://github.com/cosmos72/twin|Text mode window environment]]
  * [[https://www.dosbox.com|DOSBox]] uses SDL, so works too. That means you can run Windows 3.1 on Linux without running X


You can also combine this list with [[CLI Applications]].


**To be continued...**

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