Subject: directly acessing the Linux framebuffer console

From: John Magolske <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:54:42 -0700

I'm using Screen in a Linux framebuffer console. To view images I'm
using fbi, but it requires direct access to the framebuffer console,
and cannot run within a Screen psuedo tty. So I use openvt in a script
like so:

    #!/bin/sh
    sudo openvt -sw -- fbi -e --autodown $1
    sudo deallocvt

Or for viewing videos:

    #!/bin/sh
    sudo openvt -sw -- mplayer -really-quiet -vo fbdev -fs $1
    sudo deallocvt

openvt seems to require being run as root in order to switch to
a VT from within Screen, so I put this in /etc/sudoers :

    username    ALL=NOPASSWD:   /usr/bin/openvt

This has the effect of running fbi or mplayer as root, which doesn't
seem optimal. Is there a way around running openvt as root?

Alternatively, I can do this manually:

    C-A
    :detach
    % fbi imagefile.jpg && screen -d -r

Is there a way to script this sequence? It's not as smooth as using
openvt in some ways (the detach/re-attach seems to cause some of the
contents in Screen's tty's to 'blink' when coming back to them), but
it could also be handy for something like using ctheme to change the
color theme of the VT Screen is running in.

There's also fim [http://www.autistici.org/dezperado/FIM.html] an
image viewer that does work within Screen. So that's a way around
fbi's limitations. But for other uses (w3m w/images, mplayer, ctheme)
I'd like to better understand how to access the framebuffer console
from within screen.

TIA for any suggestions,

John

-- 
John Magolske
http://B79.net/contact

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