On Sun, Mar 19, 2006 at 02:25:40PM +0100, Attilio Fiandrotti wrote:

Hi

Hi!

Recently the debian-installer, Debian's installation system, went graphical [1]: a GTK frontend was developed and to keep the instalation ISO as small as possible, so that runs even on low-mem systems, we choosed the DirectFrameBuffer [2] GTK backend (that has recently become part of GTK mainline to replace the old linux-fb). As the DFB backend allows multiple applications to render on the same VT, i was investigating about intergrating a web browser into the debian-installer so that the user is able to browse the installation manual while installing.

Yes, that's a good idea. Even further, I've always thought that Dillo would fit perfectly for a general help/info browser on the desktops (a quick interface that allows for fast browsing, using little memory, with search scripts/dpis bindings on the local fs...).

As we need a very small and non X11-tied browser, dillo looks perfect for our purpose, but, as dillo is based on GTK 1.x, it's currently not possible running it on a GTKDFB system. I was wondering how hard would it be porting Dillo to GTK+, so that we can use it into our installer? Also, having dillo running on top of GTKDFB, would make it a very good solution for embedded applications.

The Dillo project is moving away from GTK and finishing the port to FLTK2. This means a much smaller footprint than GTK2. FLTK2 has _planned_ rendering on the framebuffer, so AFAIS the easiest path to having a web browser for the Debian installer is to develop the glue code between FLTK2 rendering and the Direct Framebuffer. As FLTK2 currently renders on several different platforms, the rendering abstraction is well defined so it should be easy to start coding. You must ask Michael or Bill from fltk.org for details. -- Cheers Jorge.-