FBDEV Console Patches Optimize Performance - Print Directory Listing ~25% Faster

[ElectricPrism]

This reminds me of how much I miss fbsplash ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fbs...le_backgrounds )

[Nuc!eoN]

Would anybody be able to ELI5 this to me? What is FBDEV?

Is it what a TTY uses to display stuff?

[stormcrow]

I definitely have waited longer because I forgot to pipe away from the console or wanted to see what was going on. The directory listings are an example, but a real world case is a kernel build on a Raspberry Pi. This does have practical value.

Also, if someone's job is to maintain something, shouldn't they... optimize it within reason?

Absolutely.

It's not just the Pis. Many ARM systems use the fbdev for video output. Personally I'd direct the kernel build output to a file instead not just to speed things up, but to have a record of build info. Video output is never completely instantaneous no matter what hardware you use without a direct hardwired display. Even on PCs with much beefier video hardware it's better to direct video output to a file rather than the screen, if possible. There's definitely much that could be done to improve the situation for Linux TUI/CLI output.

[er888kh]

This is really nice - I was allways wondering why CPU, RAM, IOs get so much faster but often you can't "feel" this in console. Still more or less like the first time on a fast SSD. Or am I missing something?

Unless you use an electron based terminal. Honestly, I am way more grateful after opening one 2 times and using it for 5 minutes.

[bobbie424242]

Glad to see scrolling coming back. When I noticed it was removed it as a real WTF moment...

[skeevy420]

I don't know how I feel about this. I really hoped the lack of maintainer and loss of functionality would finally give impetus to a userspace solution. Personally, I use kmscon with hwaccel, it's okay, fast enough, looks okay, but really isn't a complete solution and feels unfinished.

With as much as we discuss it I'm really surprised the Phoronix community hasn't hacked something together by now.

[sinepgib]

With as much as we discuss it I'm really surprised the Phoronix community hasn't hacked something together by now.

Considering how many of its members are just lazy haters that wouldn't release a line of code but are constantly bitching about the ones who do not doing things as they want them, I'm not surprised in the slightest. Just a few posts above yours is the most retarded take one can have.

[sdack]

Ha. To this day, devs give me weird looks when I tell them it's faster if they don't actually print the output...

Probably because you misunderstand the goal. It is not about how fast one can scroll thousands of lines. You are obviously right that not printing the entire content is a lot faster. It is about printing a single line. Listing the content of /usr/share/doc is merely used as a means to benchmark the optimization.

[Etherman]

Would anybody be able to ELI5 this to me? What is FBDEV?

Is it what a TTY uses to display stuff?

/dev/fb0
It also can display graphics if user has write permission to it. I think Links (webbrowser) can use it too and maybe SDL so games can work without X11 or root access.
Screenshots can be taken with cat /dev/fb0 > image.raw

[sinepgib]

/dev/fb0
It also can display graphics if user has write permission to it. I think Links (webbrowser) can use it too and maybe SDL so games can work without X11 or root access.
Screenshots can be taken with cat /dev/fb0 > image.raw

Qt also has a backend for embedded uses. kmscon does as well, despite what its name implies.