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Microwindows Installation Documentation

September 6, 2001 g haerr 

- For notes on Intel Assabet, see bottom of file -

Microwindows compiles and runs on Linux, UNIX, ELKS, MSDOS,

RTEMS, X11 and bare hardware.  There is support for the MIPS,

ARM, and x86 cpu's using the GNU C cross compiler.

Microwindows can be compiled to use different screen,

mouse and keyboard drivers for a given operating system environment.

Most options are set using configuration file (microwin/src/config) options.

These options can be manually editted, or if running X11,

by running a graphical configuration program that will read and

write the config file if desired by running "make xconfig".

Other options are set in the graphics drawing engine's header

file microwin/src/include/device.h.

After changing any options in microwin/src/config, Microwindows

is built by typing "make clean; make".

Microwindows' header files can be written to /usr/lib/microwin,

and libraries to /usr/lib by typing "make install".  This

is not required unless using Microwindows to build other

applications, however.  All demos build using the headers

and libraries built in the source tree.

Config options are detailed in the config file itself and

following each operating environment below.  Setting the line

        MICROWIN=Y

will build Microwindows.  The line

        NANOX=Y

will build Nano-X.  Both are built by default.

Setting OPTIMIZE=Y will run an the compiler's -O switch.

Setting DEBUG=Y will add -g.  Setting VERBOSE=Y will display

the full compiler command line when making.  When cross-compiling

for different platforms, the various XXXTOOLSPREFIX values

must be set accordingly.

The Nano-X server can be built with a compiled-in application,

or use UNIX sockets to allow seperately compiled applications

to connect to the server.  Setting the line

        LINK_APP_INTO_SERVER=Y

will build a linked application/server, which is useful for debugging

and speed.  The client/server networking code has been rewritten for speed.

We now have support for scaled, rotated, and antialiased

fonts with both truetype and adobe type 1 fonts.  To include

support for truetype fonts, download freetype-1.3.1.tar.gz from

either microwindows.org or www.freetype.org, and set:

        HAVE_FREETYPE_SUPPORT=Y

in the config file. For Adobe Type 1 font support, download

t1lib-1.0.tar.tz from microwindows.org or

ftp://ftp.neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pub/software/t1lib/

and set:

        HAVE_T1LIB_SUPPORT=Y

in the config file.  The ftdemo and t1demo programs demonstrate

use of both truetype and type 1 fonts.

All the demos are built in the microwin/src/bin directory.  Following

are the current demos:

mdemo           Microwindows 3d demo

mterm           Microwindows terminal emulator

demo            Nano-X demo

demo3           Nano-X .bmp and .jpeg display demo

landmine        Nano-X landmine game

world           Nano-X world graph demo

nterm           Nano-X terminal emulator

nclock          Nano-X clock

nano-X          Nano-X server (must be run before Nano-X demo)

                (see demo*.sh)

Linux

=====

Linux users set the line below in the config file.

        ARCH=LINUX-NATIVE

Linux users have the choice of running framebuffer screen drivers,

which require kernel 2.2.x, the svgalib screen driver for

Linux 2.0.x users, or X Windows.  The framebuffer driver runs on

1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32bpp systems.  Both linear and VGA memory

layouts are supported.  To choose between the framebuffer,

svgalib driver or X Windows, (should run on all Linux systems),

set one of the following lines in the config file:

        FRAMEBUFFER=Y           (for 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 bpp linear fb access)

        VGALIB=Y                (svgalib vga access)

        HWVGA=Y                 (hardware vga access for rtems)

        X11=Y                   (for X11)

If FRAMEBUFFER is set, the following line enables the optional

4 planes VGA non-linear driver:

        FBVGA=Y                 (for 4 planes VGA 16 color framebuffer)

For MIPS and SuperH compilations, set FBVGA=N, since system header

files don't contain outb() and outw() macros.

When building the X11 version, it is very important to

set the SCREEN_PIXTYPE value correctly, as Microwindows

will emulate the target pixel depth in X11.  See the

config file for more details.

Linux users can use either the GPM mouse driver, or a "bare"

serial mouse driver that decodes the mouse directly from the

serial port.  Set either line in the config file.

        GPMMOUSE=Y      or

        SERMOUSE=Y

        NOMOUSE=Y               (for no mouse)

Note that to use the GPM driver, you must start GPM with

the -R option, and usually specify the mouse type with -t.

See mouse.sh for an example.  If using the direct serial

mouse driver, the serial port may have to be specified in

microwin/src/drivers/mou_ser.c, as it defaults to /dev/ttyS1.

I have written a utility that converts MS fonts, for exact

MS-Windows look and feel.  You must own a MS license in order

to use an MS font.  To use the MS fonts, run mwin/src/fonts/convfnt32.exe

on a Windows system, and it will create the win*.c font tables.

Then, set the following line in the config file:

        HAVEMSFONTS=Y

ELKS

====

ELKS users set the line below in the config file.

        ARCH=ELKS

The NWIDGET=N line must be set, as bcc can't handle

ansi C's token paste operator, used in the widget library.

The serial mouse driver is in microwin/src/drivers/mou_ser.c.

The default mouse port and type can be changed with the following

environment variables, or changed in the driver.

Environment Var         Default         Allowed

MOUSE_TYPE              pc              ms, pc, logi(same as pc)

MOUSE_PORT              /dev/ttys0      any serial port

It might also be a good idea to use the XOR frame-redraw window

move algorithm, by setting the following lines in the config file.

The XOR algorithm redraws only after the window move is

completed, which works well on slower cpu's.

        ERASEMOVE=N

        UPDATEREGIONS=N

Since ELKS doesn't currently have a floating point library,

the 3d demo is automatically compiled out of

microwin/src/demos/microwin/demo.c:

        #define GRAPH3D 0

        #define IMAGE   0

The IMAGE define is set to 0 as bringing in most

images will break the 64k data segment limit.  The ELKS

version also doesn't include the button control or wallpaper

in the demo to keep the text/data sizes down.

The latest version of the ELKS kernel supports a variant

of UNIX sockets, using numbers rather than names.  To

build a client/server version of Nano-X for ELKS, the config line

        LINK_APP_INTO_SERVER=y

must be set.  In addition, the bcc compiler doesn't support

the ANSI C '##' token pasting operator which is used

in the client request code, client.c.  Run the following

perl script to preprocess the client.c source file:

        cd microwin/src/nanox

        mv client.c client.dist

        ./elkspatch.pl < client.dist > client.c

MSDOS

=====

Microwindows is currently ported using MSC v5.10, and MASM.

The file mcmwin.mak will build microwin.exe, and mcnanox.mak

will build nanox.exe.  The DEMO= line can be changed to build

different nano-X demos.

There are contributed DJGPP, TURBO C and PACIFIC C ports.

Instructions are in microwin/src/contrib/djgpp, turboc and

pacific.

Framebuffer notes:

If you haven't used any of the Linux 2.2 framebuffer drivers before,

it can be a little daunting at first. Alex Buell has written a

Framebuffer HOWTO, which is available on his website at

http://www.tahallah.demon.co.uk/ which goes into detail about the

various drivers, command line options, and the fbset utility.

For any frame buffer other than the Vesa framebuffer

(which can only change modes at bootup because it needs to

execute the code in the video card's ROM in real mode),

you can change bits per pixel with the command 'fbset -depth {8|16|24|32}'.

Another very useful framebuffer site is http://www.linux-fbdev.org

Intel Assabet

-------------

Microwindows compiles up fine on the StrongARM-based Intel

Assabet.  The following information is known to work:

1. Kernel version - linux-2.4.0-test11

2. Patches - patch-2.4.0-test11-rmk1, diff-2.4.0-test11-rmk1-np3

3. Set IPAQMOUSE=Y in Microwindows' config file

4. "mknod /dev/h3600_ts c 11 0" to create the touchscreen device file

5. If your screen isn't calibrated, you'll have to edit the Linux kernel:

        - edit drivers/char/ucb1200_ts.c

        - search for x_rev = 0 [around line 190]

        - change x_rev and y_rev both to 1

        - recompile the kernel

6. More help is available at

        http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wearable/software/assabet.html

Have fun!

Greg Haerr