Displaying PDFs in a Framebuffer

aja · Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2003 4:28 pm Post subject: Displaying PDFs in a Framebuffer

Hi, all

I have an old laptop that I have a console-only (well, actually, framebuffer) install of Gentoo on. It simply doesn't have the drive space/power for X (even with fluxbox). I do, however, find myself using it a lot and I have tweaked it to the point that I can websurf using links in the fb graphical mode and even display dvi files that I compile with latex.

The last thing I need to make it perfect would be for a way to display pdf files, similar to the way that I am currently able to view dvi files. Problem is, I can't seem to find a package that offers that. Has anyone run across one?

tia,

Joffer · Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 3:36 am Post subject:

Did you figure out this? I don't know, just thought it would be cool to have it myself

modal · Apprentice Joined: 02 Oct 2002 Posts: 277

I was chillin' in #gentoo on irc the other day, and this was discussed...but, I can't remember the name of the console based pdf viewer.
I just wonder how it would deal with pictures and stuff? (cool ascii conversion)

drakonite · l33t Joined: 02 Nov 2002 Posts: 768 Location: Lincoln, NE

Vancouverite · Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 7:53 am Post subject:

Rumour has it that this program can be used to view PDF's in a console:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/psv
None of the versions would ever compile for me though. PDF's can be converted to text with a bunch of different utils like: pdftotext

aja · Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 3:06 pm Post subject:

aja · Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 4:18 pm Post subject:

After a little reading, it looks like this might work - and libggi is in Portage!! Will probably get to it this weekend, and will post results here. Thanks to all for your help.

drakonite · l33t Joined: 02 Nov 2002 Posts: 768 Location: Lincoln, NE

You might want to also check out fbi.

They claim that with v1.4 it has a wrapper script that allows it to view pdf files...
I haven't gotten it working yet though...
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aja · Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 7:08 pm Post subject:

aja · Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 7:13 pm Post subject:

Oh, and don't google on 'fbi' the way I did - for some reason I got a lot of hits for law enforcement agencies :-)

I worry about myself sometimes - I'm obviously quite mad.

Vancouverite · Posted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 7:49 pm Post subject:

Here's another neat console program, a direct connect client:
http://pa223.lodz-zubardz.sdi.tpnet.pl/ldcc/
But since you're getting rid of X because of hdd space it probably won't be that useful. It compiles (1.4) for me now so I must have done something different when I upgraded to Gentoo 1.4, however I'm not getting any output when I try to view PDF's. I am using Radeon framebuffer.

drakonite · l33t Joined: 02 Nov 2002 Posts: 768 Location: Lincoln, NE

An update about the fbi pdf viewing...
The command is fbgs. I tried it and it works. But... It works by having ghostscript convert the pdf in to images, so its a little slow to start up and needs enough hd space for every page to be turned into a jpeg.

The quality seemed horrible unless I specified the -xxl option (to render in 150dpi), which causes it to take that much more space for each page.

Hehe... Trying to view a pdf that is over 1300 pages is probably not a good idea with it

lol

If I get bored enough I may try figuring out the fb backend for fbi and how to output images using gs and try making a little program to more efficiently browse pdf files in framebuffers.

On the bad side of things... I just found out there is some sort of problem with my framebuffer that causes it to lock up when I switch back to X.. grr..
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aja · Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2003 6:14 am Post subject:

aja · Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2003 7:59 pm Post subject:

Update on the PSV thing: it works fine for postscript files (MUCH better quality than the fbi script) - you need to emerge libgii and libggi (both of which are in portage (we rock).

Currently, I'm having some trouble displaying PDFs, but I think the problem is interactions between ghostscript and the PDF, not with PSV per se. I'm going to try hacking the code to get it to work - will post diffs if I am succesful.

[edit} : Oh. yeah, make sure you have your use flags set to include the framebuffer flags (can't remember them offhand, I think fbcon and fbdirect or directfb) before emerging libggi and libgii, or the framebuffer drivers will be disabled. Look in the ebuilds to see what I mean.