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2DIRECTFBRC(5)                DirectFB Manual Pages               DIRECTFBRC(5)
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NAME

7       directfbrc - DirectFB configuration file
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10

DESCRIPTION

12       The directfbrc file is a configuration file read by all DirectFB appli‐
13       cations on startup.  There are two of these: a system-wide  one  stored
14       in  /etc/directfbrc and a per-user $HOME/.directfbrc which may override
15       system settings.
16
17       Further  customization  is  available  per  executable   (basename   of
18       argv[0]): /etc/directfbrc.$0 and a per-user $HOME/.directfbrc.$0
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20       After config files, the environment variable DFBARGS is parsed.
21
22       The  same  parameters  that  can  be used in the directfbrc file can be
23       passed via this variable or on the command-line by prefixing them  with
24       --dfb: separated each with a comma.
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26

SYNTAX

28       The  directfbrc  file  contains  one  parameter  per line. Comments are
29       introduced by a hash sign (#), and continue until the end of the  line.
30       Blank lines are ignored.
31
32       Most  parameters  are  switches  that  turn certain features on or off.
33       These switches have a no- variant that disables the feature. This  man-
34       page describes the positive variant and will also note which setting is
35       the compiled-in default.
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37
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PARAMETERS

40       The following parameters may be specified in the directfbrc file:
41
42
43       system=<system>
44              Specifies the graphics system to use. The default is to use  the
45              Linux  frame buffer (fbdev) but you can also run DirectFB appli‐
46              cations on SDL (sdl).  Other  systems  might  be  added  in  the
47              future.
48
49
50       fbdev=<device>
51              Opens the given frame buffer device instead of /dev/fb0.
52
53
54       busid=<id>
55              Specify the bus location of the card. The option is only used if
56              DirectFB doesn't have sysfs support  and  if  unspecified  1:0:0
57              will  be assumed.  Use this option if the driver fails to detect
58              (or incorrectly detects) your card.
59
60
61       mode=<width>x<height>
62              Sets the default screen resolution. If unspecified DirectFB will
63              use  the first mode from /etc/fb.modes Some frame buffer devices
64              (namely vesafb) don't support mode switches and can only be used
65              in the resolution that is set on boot time.
66
67
68       scaled=<width>x<height>
69              Scale the window to this size for 'force-windowed' apps.
70
71
72       depth=<pixeldepth>
73              Sets  the  default pixel depth in bits per pixel. If unspecified
74              DirectFB will use the depth specified in  the  first  mode  from
75              /etc/fb.modes  DirectFB  supports  color depths of 8, 15, 16, 24
76              and 32. Which values are available depends on the  frame  buffer
77              device  you are using. Some frame buffer devices (namely vesafb)
78              don't support mode switches at all and can only be used  in  the
79              pixel depth that is set at boot time.
80
81
82       pixelformat=<pixelformat>
83              Sets  the  default  pixel  format.  This is similar to the depth
84              parameter described above but allows more fine-grained  control.
85              Possible  values  for pixelformat are LUT8, RGB332, RGB16, RGB24
86              and RGB32. Some drivers may also support the more  exotic  pixel
87              formats A8, ALUT44, ARGB, ARGB1555, I420, UYVY, YUY2 and YV12.
88
89
90       session=<num>
91              Selects  the multi application world which is joined or created.
92              Starting with zero, negative values  force  creation  of  a  new
93              world using the lowest unused session number. This will override
94              the environment variable "DIRECTFB_SESSION".
95
96
97       force-slave
98              Always enter as a slave, waiting for the master, if not there.
99
100
101       remote=<host>[:<session>]
102              Select the remote session to connect to.
103
104
105       tmpfs=<directory>
106              Uses the given directory (tmpfs mount point) for creation of the
107              shared  memory  file  in  multi application mode. This option is
108              only useful if the automatic detection  fails  or  if  non-tmpfs
109              storage is desired.
110
111
112       shmfile-group=<groupname>
113              Group that owns shared memory files.
114
115
116       memcpy=<method>
117              With  this  option  the  probing  of  memcpy()  routines  can be
118              skipped, saving a lot of startup time. Pass "help" for a list of
119              possible values.
120
121
122       primary-layer=<id>
123              Selects  which  layer  is  the  "primary  layer", default is the
124              first.  Check 'dfbinfo' for a list of layers supported  by  your
125              hardware.
126
127
128       primary-only
129              Tell application only about the primary layer.
130
131
132       quiet  Suppresses  console  output  from  DirectFB. Only error messages
133              will be displayed.
134
135
136       [no-]banner
137              Enables the output of the DirectFB banner at startup. This is on
138              by default.
139
140
141       [no-]debug
142              Enables  debug  output.  This is on by default but you won't see
143              any debug output unless you  compiled  DirectFB  with  debugging
144              support.
145
146
147       [no-]debugmem
148              Enable memory allocation tracking.
149
150
151       [no-]debugshm
152              Enable shared memory allocation tracking.
153
154
155       [no-]trace
156              Enable  stack trace support. This is on by default but you won't
157              see any trcae output unless you  compiled  DirectFB  with  trace
158              support.
159
160
161       log-file=<name>
162              Write all messages to the specified file.
163
164
165       log-udp=<host>:<port>
166              Send all messages via UDP to the specified host and port.
167
168
169       fatal-level=<level>
170              Abort on NONE, ASSERT (default) or ASSUME (incl. assert)
171
172
173       force-windowed
174              Forces  the  primary  surface to be a window. This allows to run
175              applications that were written to do  full-screen  access  in  a
176              window.
177
178
179       force-desktop
180              Forces  the  primary surface to be the background surface of the
181              desktop.
182
183
184       [no-]hardware
185              Turns hardware acceleration on. By default hardware acceleration
186              is  auto-detected.  If  you  disable  hardware acceleration, the
187              driver for your graphics card will still be loaded and  used  to
188              access  additional  display  layers  (if there are any), but all
189              graphics operations will be performed by the software renderer.
190
191
192       [no-]software
193              This option allows to disable software fallbacks.
194
195
196       [no-]dma
197              Turns DMA acceleration  on,  if  supported  by  the  driver.  By
198              default DMA acceleration is off.
199
200
201       [no-]sync
202              Flushes  all disk buffers before initializing DirectFB. This can
203              be useful if you working with experimental  device  drivers  and
204              expect crashes. The default is not to sync.
205
206
207       [no-]mmx
208              The  no-mmx  options  allows  to disable the use of MMX routines
209              even if support for MMX was detected. By default MMX is used  if
210              is available and support for MMX was compiled in.
211
212
213       [no-]agp[=mode]
214              Turns  AGP  memory support on. The option enables DirectFB using
215              the AGP memory to extend the amount of video  memory  available.
216              You  can  specify  the  AGP mode to use (e.g. 1, 2, 4, 8 or 0 to
217              disable agp). By default AGP memory support is off.
218
219
220       [no-]thrifty-surface-buffers
221              Free sysmem instance on xfer to video memory.
222
223
224       font-format=<format>
225              Specify the font format to use.  Possible  values  are  A1,  A8,
226              ARGB, ARGB1555, ARGB2554, ARGB4444, AiRGB. The default font for‐
227              mat is A8 because it is the only format that ensures high  qual‐
228              ity, fast rendering and low memory consumption at the same time.
229              Use this option only if your fonts looks strange or if font ren‐
230              dering is too slow.
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232
233       [no-]sighandler
234              By  default  DirectFB  installs a signal handler for a number of
235              signals that cause an application to exit. This  signal  handler
236              tries  to  deinitialize  the DirectFB engine before quitting the
237              application.  Use this option to enable/disable this feature.
238
239
240       dont-catch=<num>[[,<num>]...]
241              As described with the sighandler  option,  DirectFB  installs  a
242              signal  handler  for  a number of signals.  By using this option
243              you may specify a list of signals that shouldn't be handled this
244              way.
245
246
247       [no-]deinit-check
248              By  default  DirectFB checks if the application has released all
249              allocated resources on exit. If it  didn't,  it  will  clean  up
250              after  the  application.  This option allows to switch this fea‐
251              ture on or off.
252
253
254       block-all-signals
255              This option  activates  blocking  of  all  signals,  useful  for
256              DirectFB  daemons (a DirectFB master application that does noth‐
257              ing except being the master).
258
259
260       [no-]vt-switch
261              By  default  DirectFB  allocates  a  new  virtual  terminal  and
262              switches to it.
263
264
265       vt-num=<num>
266              Use given VT instead of current/new one.
267
268
269       [no-]vt-switching
270              Allow  to switch virtual terminals using <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<F?>. This
271              is an experimental feature that is usually disabled; use at your
272              own risk.
273
274
275       [no-]graphics-vt
276              Puts  the  virtual  terminal  into  graphics  mode. This has the
277              advantage that kernel messages won't  show  up  on  your  screen
278              while the DirectFB application is running.
279
280
281       [no-]vt
282              Use VT handling code at all?
283
284
285       mouse-source=<device>
286              Specify the serial mouse device.
287
288
289       [no-]mouse-gpm-source
290              Enables using GPM as mouse input repeater.
291
292
293       [no-]motion-compression
294              Usually DirectFB compresses mouse motion events. This means that
295              subsequent mouse motions are delivered to the application  as  a
296              single  mouse  motion event. This leads to a more responsive but
297              less exact mouse handling.
298
299
300       mouse-protocol=<protocol>
301              Specifies the mouse protocol to use. The following protocols are
302              supported:
303
304              MS Two button mouse using the Microsoft mouse protocol.
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306              MS3  Three button mouse using an extended Microsoft mouse proto‐
307              col.
308
309              MouseMan Three button mouse using a different extension  to  the
310              Microsoft mouse protocol introduced by Logitech.
311
312              MouseSystems  The  most  commonly used protocol for three button
313              mice.
314
315              PS/2 Two/three button mice of the PS/2 series.
316
317              IMPS/2 Two/three button USB mice with scrolling wheel using  the
318              Microsoft Intellimouse protocol.
319
320              The  different  protocols  for serial mice are described in more
321              detail in mouse(4).
322
323
324       [no-]lefty
325              Swaps left and right mouse buttons. Useful for left-handers.
326
327
328       [no-]capslock-meta
329              Map the CapsLock key to Meta. Useful for users of the builtin WM
330              without a Meta key on the keyboard (e.g. Window key).
331
332
333       linux-input-ir-only
334              Ignore all non-IR Linux Input devices.
335
336
337       [no-]linux-input-grab
338              Grab Linux Input devices. When a device is grabbed only DirectFB
339              will receive events from it. The default is to not grab.
340
341
342       [no-]cursor
343              By default DirectFB shows a mouse  cursor  when  an  application
344              makes  use  of  windows. This option allows to switch the cursor
345              off permanently.  Applications cannot enable it explicitly.
346
347
348       wm=<wm>
349              Specify the window manager to use.
350
351
352       bg-none
353              Completely disables background handling. Doesn't make much sense
354              since the mouse and moving windows will leave ugly traces on the
355              background.
356
357
358       bg-color=AARRGGBB
359              Controls the color of the background. The color is specified  in
360              hexadecimal  notation.  The alpha value defaults to full opacity
361              and may be omitted. For example to choose a bright magenta back‐
362              ground, you'd use bg-color=FF00FF.
363
364
365       bg-image=<filename>
366              Fills  the  background with the given image from file. The image
367              is stretched to fit to the screen dimensions.
368
369
370       bg-tile=<filename>
371              Like bg-image but tiles the image to fit to  the  screen  dimen‐
372              sions instead of stretching it.
373
374
375       [no-]translucent-windows
376              By  default  DirectFB windows may be translucent. If you disable
377              this feature, windows are forced to be either  fully  opaque  or
378              fully  transparent. This is useful if your graphics card doesn't
379              support alpha-transparent blits.
380
381
382       [no-]decorations
383              Enables window decorations if supported by the window manager.
384
385
386       videoram-limit=<amount>
387              Limits the amount of Video RAM used by DirectFB. The  amount  of
388              Video RAM is specified in Kilobytes.
389
390
391       agpmem-limit=<amount>
392              Limits  the amount if AGP memory used by DirectFB. The amount of
393              AGP memory is specified in Kilobytes.
394
395
396       screenshot-dir=<directory>
397              If specified DirectFB will dump the screen contents in PPM  for‐
398              mat into this directory when the <Print> key gets pressed.
399
400
401       disable-module=<modulename>
402              Suppress loading of this module. The module name is the filename
403              without the libdirectfb_ prefix and without extension (for exam‐
404              ple keyboard to disable loading of the keyboard input module).
405
406
407       [no-]matrox-sgram
408              Some older Matrox G400 cards have SGRAM and a number of graphics
409              operations are considerably faster on these cards if  this  fea‐
410              ture  is  enabled.  Don't  try to enable it if your card doesn't
411              have SGRAM!  Otherwise you'd have to reboot.
412
413
414       [no-]matrox-crtc2
415              If you have a dual head G400/G450/G550 you can use  this  option
416              to enable additional layers using the second head.
417
418
419       matrox-tv-standard=[pal|ntsc]
420              Controls the signal produced by the TV output of Matrox cards.
421
422
423       matrox-cable-type=(composite|scart-rgb|scart-composite)
424              Matrox cable type (default=composite).
425
426
427       h3600-device=<device>
428              Use this device for the H3600 TS driver.
429
430
431       mut-device=<device>
432              Use this device for the MuTouch driver.
433
434
435       penmount-device=<device>
436              Use this device for the PenMount driver.
437
438
439       linux-input-devices=<device>[[,<device>]...]
440              Use these devices for the Linux Input driver.
441
442
443       tslib-devices=<device>[[,<device>]...]
444              Use these devices for the tslib driver.
445
446
447       unichrome-revision=<revision>
448              Override  the  hardware  revision  number  used by the Unichrome
449              driver.
450
451
452       i8xx_overlay_pipe_b
453              Redirect videolayer to pixelpipe B.
454
455
456       window-surface-policy=<policy>
457              Allows to control where window surfaces  are  stored.  Supported
458              values for <policy> are:
459
460              auto  DirectFB  decides depending on hardware capabilities. This
461              is the default.
462
463              videohigh Swapping system/video with high priority.
464
465              videolow Swapping system/video with low priority.
466
467              systemonly Window surfaces are stored in system memory.
468
469              videoonly Window surfaces are stored in video memory.
470
471
472       desktop-buffer-mode=<mode>
473              Allows to control the desktop buffer mode. Whenever a window  is
474              moved,  opened,  closed, resized or its contents change DirectFB
475              recomposites the window stack at the affected  region.  This  is
476              done  by  blitting  the windows together that are visible within
477              that region. Opaque windows are blitted directly while  translu‐
478              cent  windows  are blitted using alpha blending or color keying.
479              If there's a back buffer the recomposition is not visible  since
480              only the final result is copied into the front buffer. Without a
481              back buffer each step of the  recomposition  is  visible.   This
482              causes noticeable flicker unless all windows are opaque.
483
484              Supported values for <mode> are:
485
486              auto  DirectFB  decides depending on hardware capabilities. This
487              is the default. DirectFB chooses a back buffer in  video  memory
488              if  the  hardware supports simple blitting (copying from back to
489              front buffer). If there's no acceleration at all the back buffer
490              is  allocated in system memory since that gives much better per‐
491              formance for alpha blended recomposition in software and  avoids
492              reading  from  the video memory when the result is copied to the
493              front buffer.
494
495              backsystem The back buffer is allocated in system  memory.  This
496              is  the  recommend choice if your hardware supports simple blit‐
497              ting but no alpha blending and you are going to have many  alpha
498              blended windows.
499
500              backvideo  Front  and back buffer are allocated in video memory.
501              It's not required to set this mode explicitly because the 'auto'
502              mode  chooses  it  if blits are accelerated. Without accelerated
503              blits this mode is not recommended.
504
505              triple Like backvideo except the surface is triple buffered.
506
507              frontonly There is no back buffer. This is the  best  choice  if
508              you  are  using opaque windows only and don't use any color key‐
509              ing.
510
511              windows Special mode with  window  buffers  directly  displayed.
512              This mode requires special hardware support.
513
514
515       vsync-after
516              Wait  for the vertical retrace after flipping. The default is to
517              wait before doing the flip.
518
519
520       vsync-none
521              Disables polling for vertical retrace.
522
523
524

EXAMPLES

526       Here are some examples that demonstrates how the  parameters  described
527       above are passed to DirectFB application on the command-line.
528
529
530       df_neo --dfb:no-hardware
531              Starts df_neo without hardware acceleration.
532
533       df_neo --dfb:help
534              Lists the DirectFB options that can be passed to df_neo.
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537

OTHER INFO

539       The   canonical  place  to  find  informations  about  DirectFB  is  at
540       http://www.directfb.org/.  Here you can find the FAQ, tutorials,  mail‐
541       ing  list archives, the CVS tree and can download the latest version of
542       the DirectFB library as well as a number of applications.
543
544
545

FILES

547       /etc/directfbrc
548              system-wide DirectFB configuration file
549
550       $HOME/.directfbrc
551              per-user DirectFB configuration file
552
553       /etc/fb.modes
554              frame buffer modes file
555
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557

SEE ALSO

559       fb.modes(5), fbset(8), mouse(4), ppm(5)
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562
563Version 1.4.11                    03 Mar 2007                    DIRECTFBRC(5)
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