Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

The latest zgv 5.9 has greatly improved security, which is needed if you 
run it suid, which I will need to do because I cannot compile the module 
needed to use svgalib without suid.  SW10.2 source code appears to be 
missing two required files needed for the module, which compiles with 2.6.

http://keesan.freeshell.org/bl/zgv-5.9-glibc225.tgz

Usable in BL3 if you have added glibc from Slackware 8.1 or 9.0 to run 
Opera.

David Moberg compiled a uclibc-dynamic version that requires uclibc libc 
and ld-linux as well as libvga and libvgagl compiled against these.

Compiled as follows: Downloaded and compiled and installed (including 
headers and shared libraries with symlinks to unnumbered .so files)

1.  libpng-1.2.16 (Jan 31 2007)
2.  This needs zlib-1.2.3 (July 18 2006)


3.  libtiff-3.8.2 (Mar 23, 2006)would not compile (something was missing) 
so I used precompiled 3.5.7 (SW8.1).  I rarely run into tiffs anyway.

4.  libjpeg -from 1998 jpegsrc.v6b.  make install neither removed /usr/bin 
versions of a couple programs or copied over the header files or symlinked 
to libjpeg.so so I had to do that manually.

5.  svgalib - since it won't compile the module make install did not 
install but I could make installheaders and make installsharedlibs.

This zgv package includes 215K zgv, a default zgv.conf, man page, docs, 
NEWS and SECURITY.  Requires the above shared libraries (as does delilinux 
svgalib-links2).


gs needs the same libraries to compile.  It would not compile with svgalib 
support for me a few years ago, probably because I did not have the 
headers and .so libraries installed then.

zgv is a viewer, not a convertor.  Use netpbm for conversions.

The man page is in readable English.  142 pages of it.
There are four zgv-N files which might be redundant (info format).


Picture quality looks the same with zgv and xv.



At 1280 resolution, 24-bit color:

zgv is using 3.8% of RAM (192MB) = 7MB

xv 5.6% Xvesa 0.8% xinit 0.4% (no wm) = 13MB

xv is barely usable in 16MB RAM



Our newer laptops have 12MB RAM and 640 display (or even 800). At 640

zgv 1.2% = 2.3MB

xv 1.8% + Xvesa 0.8% (regardless of resolution) + xinit 0.4% = 5.8MB


Usable in 12MB but probably not 8MB RAM.




Our older laptops only do 8-bit color, which rules out TinyX except for 
4-bit color (VGA).

SVGA X server at 640 res 8-bit color uses 1.3% (same for 1280 16-bit)
(xv 1.8 + X-SVGA 1.3 + init 0.4) x 192 = 6.7MB

Should work in 12MB but not 8MB.

zgv -j (8-bit color) 0.9% (any res) = 1.7MB

seejpeg in color (24-bit) uses 1.1%  of RAM at 650 = 2MB.
seejpeg -F 10 (8-bit color) 0.7% = 1.4MB
seejpeg -g (greyscale 8-bit) uses 0.5% of RAM = 1MB.


Steven included seejpeg in BL1 along with libvga.  I put BL1 on our 486 
laptop with 8MB RAM and 256-color display which did not work with Xvesa 
and was tricky to set up with SVGA server (special modelines).


Recent svgalib also supports newer video chips than Slackware 4.0 or 
Xvesa, without any need to update X or glibc or compile your own driver.

On this fast computer it takes about 1 sec to load a photo.  X takes 3 sec 
to load first, but if you are already using X this does not matter.
On a slow computer you might see speed differences between programs.


My primary reason for using zgv or seejpeg is I hate GUIs.  svgalib 
programs are designed for keyboard control (and optionally also mouse).



keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org