fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

Sara · 2011-11-20 15:18:49

I discovered Ali Gholami Rudi's framebuffer programs back in February, reading a post on K Mandla's blog, and wanted to share them with the Arch community, because I don't imagine I'm the only one who likes light software written in C . PKGBUILDs for all of them are in the AUR.

My favorite, and the first program of the bunch I packaged, is fbpdf, which is uses the MuPDF library to render PDFs, and I believe it's the only high-quality PDF viewer for the console. (Before, I had to use fbgs, which simply does not compare.) It uses vim-like keyboard shortcuts, like many of our favorite PDF viewers, and I've written a man page for it that's included in the installation. (There's also a README, by the author, but I wrote the man page when the software had no documentation.)

fbff is a video player, which is preferable to mplayer as it only depends on ffmpeg (for sound, you can use the OSS emulation modules, if you're using ALSA, like me). It also uses vim-like keyboard shortcuts (all of his software do), and I like calling it from w3m to watch videos within w3m. I use the following script:

#!/bin/sh
# depends: yturl, fbff

video=$(yturl $1)
fbff -f $video > /dev/null 2>&1

Finally, fbpad is another framebuffer virtual terminal, like fbterm, and supports bold fonts, 256 colors, and ttf fonts through its ft2tf conversion tool. Like dwm, it's managed through tags and configured with a config.h file. Each tag can hold up to two terminals, and shell programs can also be launched directly via keybindings (e.g. mailx, vim).

The author has also written minmad, a minimal mp3 player using the libmad library, and tdq, a commandline dictionary, both of which I've packaged in the AUR.

I hope this helps anyone who is looking for such software, and if you see room for improvement in my PKGBUILDs, please let me know.

If this was too long for you to read, the short message is that I've packaged fbpdf-git, fbff-git, fbpad-git, minmad-git, and tdq in the AUR, and if you like commandline applications and the framebuffer, please check them out .

Also, the software is being actively developed (I've made several feature requests that have been accepted), so don't hesitate to report bugs or request features. Thanks to anyone who takes a look. Also thanks to Army who suggested the initial improvements to my PKGBUILDs and helped a lot with the fbpdf package.

Edit: Since everyone likes a screenshot, here's one of dvtm running in fbpad:

I could have inline images in w3m, but rather not to, as I prefer pure text.

Last edited by Sara (2011-11-26 22:49:33)

karol · 2011-11-20 15:31:51

If you have some application-specific info, you can create a wiki page for fbpdf and friends.

You can surely scale mplayer to do fullscreen, but I don't know how efficient it was.

Sara · 2011-11-20 15:34:20

karol wrote:

If you have some application-specific info, you can create a wiki page for fbpdf and friends.
You can surely scale mplayer to do fullscreen, but I don't know how efficient it was.

I updated my post already to reflect that, and removed fullscreen as a
notable feature. I might do a wiki page (I certainly have enough
fodder for a book on this!)

Last edited by Sara (2011-11-20 15:35:57)

keenerd · 2011-11-20 18:00:55

Great series of finds! I'll need to dig out an old computer and try these while there is still weekend left.

Sara · 2011-11-21 00:13:20

keenerd wrote:

Great series of finds! I'll need to dig out an old computer and try these while there is still weekend left.

I'm actually using it on a new computer, and I'm amazed by how
much I can get done in the console alone. The only time I need a
computer with X is when I need a web browser with javascript.
Otherwise, w3m does the job.

Thanks for taking a look!

taylorchu · 2011-11-22 02:32:37

awesome.
I am using makepkg now.

Sara · 2011-12-02 01:50:50

I've added an archwiki page. Note that the supplied patches contain tab characters contain tab characters as the original C code has tab characters. I have finals upcoming, so I might not be able to reply to specific comments at this time, though I'll try to fix possible errors if they are reported. Thanks.

MarianCJC · 2012-02-10 08:32:41

Hi thanks for the wiki page,

I've tried fbpad, but I'm having problems with getting 256 colors to work (with VIM)
My setup:
VirtualBox installation of: 2011.08.19 iso (x86_64)
-no updates applied, no user created (only root)
What I have done:
-created a .tf font, so fbpad starts
-modified config.h:
-SHELL "bash"
-FGCOLOR 15
-BGCOLOR 0
-typedef unsigned char fbval_t
-after recompilation, i set the TERM env var to fbpad-256
-start fbtab -> {alt}+{c} -> start vim

I expected colors on a custom colorscheme, but not event the default ones (which work on less then 256 colors) do not work.. I only have shades of gray where the colors should have been

Also when i do: tic -c fbpad-256.info, i get:
"fbpad-256.info", line 2, col 24, terminal 'fbpad-256': unknown compatibility 'U8'

screenshot

Any ideas?
Thanks

Last edited by MarianCJC (2012-02-10 08:37:59)

Sara · 2012-02-11 03:44:36

MarianCJC wrote:

Hi thanks for the wiki page,
I've tried fbpad, but I'm having problems with getting 256 colors to work (with VIM)
My setup:
VirtualBox installation of: 2011.08.19 iso (x86_64)
-no updates applied, no user created (only root)
What I have done:
-created a .tf font, so fbpad starts
-modified config.h:
-SHELL "bash"
-FGCOLOR 15
-BGCOLOR 0
-typedef unsigned char fbval_t
-after recompilation, i set the TERM env var to fbpad-256
-start fbtab -> {alt}+{c} -> start vim
I expected colors on a custom colorscheme, but not event the default ones (which work on less then 256 colors) do not work.. I only have shades of gray where the colors should have been
Also when i do: tic -c fbpad-256.info, i get:
"fbpad-256.info", line 2, col 24, terminal 'fbpad-256': unknown compatibility 'U8'
screenshot
Any ideas?
Thanks

You shouldn't have to create a terminfo file with the tic command because my PKGBUILD already installs one. If you used the PKGBUILD to install fbpad, which uses the 256-color branch, all should work after setting the TERM to fbpad-256. If it isn't a manual install, let me know and I'll get my laptop out to do more testing. You might want to add

set t_Co=256

to your vimrc file, though it shouldn't be necessary with the TERM set.

What's wierd though is that none of your colors work. The master branch of fbpad supports 16 colors, so even if you had used that instead, you should have still had color.

Last edited by Sara (2012-02-11 03:45:58)

MarianCJC · 2012-02-11 09:40:24

Thanks for the info,

This wasn't a manual installation, I did tic -c after it did not work; also, -c only checks the file as far as I know.

I'll find some time to do it again from scratch, and this time I'll try to get the ls colors so I'll narrow it down (vim or fbpad issue)

Thanks, I'll let you know.

Last edited by MarianCJC (2012-02-17 13:12:30)

MarianCJC · 2012-02-17 13:13:26

(bump to notify the thread owner)
===
Tried it again from scratch, same results + I could not get colors on ls command; best guess: its an issue with terminal info file

Here's my VirtualBox image if anyone wants to take a look
goo.gl/XjTZD
-points to google docs
-archive: 261 MB
-extracted: 828 MB
-login: root/root

rhd · 2012-02-20 03:09:32

Everything on K Mandla's blog is wonderful. I almost forgot about these, thanks!

Sara · 2012-04-21 18:12:01

MarianCJC wrote:

Tried it again from scratch, same results + I could not get colors on ls command; best guess: its an issue with terminal info file

I just wanted to check if you had tried contacting the developer about your issue with using fbpad with VirtualBox. I am unable to reproduce your issue with my install of fbpad, and I really hope your issue can be resolved. The developer's e-mail is aligrudi at gmail dot com, and he's always been helpful in diagnosing any issues I've come across. I apologize for the delay in replying.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-11-20 15:18:49

fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

#2 2011-11-20 15:31:51

Re: fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

#3 2011-11-20 15:34:20

Re: fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

#4 2011-11-20 18:00:55

Re: fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

#5 2011-11-21 00:13:20

Re: fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

#6 2011-11-22 02:32:37

Re: fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

#7 2011-12-02 01:50:50

Re: fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

#8 2012-02-10 08:32:41

Re: fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

#9 2012-02-11 03:44:36

Re: fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

#10 2012-02-11 09:40:24

Re: fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

#11 2012-02-17 13:13:26

Re: fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

#12 2012-02-20 03:09:32

Re: fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

#13 2012-04-21 18:12:01

Re: fbpdf, fbpad, and fbff - A Minimal Framebuffer Software Suite

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