Instructions to get OpenGL ES acceleration on BeagleBone Black running Debian

[Juozapas Adomaitis]

Hello,

I have been researching the possibility to run Qt Quick 2

applications directly on BeagleBoard Black rev. C with the

display connected to HDMI. In the process I have put together

instructions to get OpenGL ES acceleration working (which is a

required by Qt Quick 2). I am posting them here in the hope that

they can be useful to someone.

Regarding my experiments, the HDMI port worked with 2 monitors

out of 4 I have tried - disappointing. Qt Quick 2 was impossibly

slow using software rendering under X in 24bpp mode. I couldn't

get it to run in 16bpp mode; it displayed this error:

   Cant find EGLConfig, returning null config

   Unable to find an X11 visual which matches EGL config 0

   Could not initialize OpenGL

It worked ok in fullscreen mode (EGLFS) after installing the

drivers.

==================================================

3 steps to get hardware OpenGL ES acceleration on BeagleBone

Black running Debian (tested 2015-10 on wheezy, jessie and sid).

Note that after following the steps you will be able to run a

single fullscreen OpenGL ES application (e.g. Qt Quick 2 in EGLFS

mode) and nothing else, meaning:

* 3D acceleration in X server doesn't work on BBB and apparently

  won't work anytime in the future

* Wayland can run with accelerating compositing (window drawing

  handled by the GPU chip), but starting OpenGL applications

  won't work. For this to work the graphics driver must have

  built-in Wayland support, exposing the EGL_EXT_platform_wayland

  EGL extension. Robert Nelson mentioned on IRC that TI is

  working on this and progress can be followed here:

  http://git.ti.com/gitweb/?p=graphics/omap5-sgx-ddk-um-linux.git;a=summary

1. First pick a kernel version from this list of kernel modules

   for the GPU (the packages are from the

   http://repos.rcn-ee.com/debian/ repo):

   $ apt-cache search ti-sgx-es8-modules

   Then install the kernel together with the modules. For

   example, if you picked ti-sgx-es8-modules-3.14.54-ti-r77, run:

   $ apt-get install -y {ti-sgx-es8-modules,linux-image,linux-firmware-image}-3.14.54-ti-r77

2. On an x86 Linux computer run this (an x86 host is needed

   because an x86 binary installer from TI will be unpacked):

   $ git clone https://github.com/RobertCNelson/ti-linux-kernel-dev.git

   $ cd ti-linux-kernel-dev

   $ ./sgx_create_package.sh

   $ scp deploy/GFX_*_es8.x.tar.gz <address_to_your_bbb>:/tmp/

3. Now install the utilities on your BBB and reboot:

   $ cd /

   $ sudo tar zxf /tmp/GFX_*_es8.x.tar.gz

   $ sudo /opt/gfxinstall/sgx-install.sh

Qt Quick 2 fullscreen programs can be launched from the terminal

or within Wayland by exporting these variables:

$ export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=eglfs

$ export QT_QPA_EVDEV_KEYBOARD_PARAMETERS="grab=1"

$ export QT_QPA_EVDEV_MOUSE_PARAMETERS="grab=1"

Wayland with accelerated compositing (but without the possibility

to launch windowed OpenGL programs) can be run like this:

$ weston-launch -- --backend=fbdev-backend.so --use-gl

[mural...@gmail.com]

Hi Juozapas ,

I'm really excited to see that you can get the OpenGL ES working on the beagleboneblack.

I have a beagleboneblack connected to a LCD touch panel and I have the SGX modules installed(followed instructins from Robert nelson's page).

I'm trying to run QT  dashboard example project. But the program errors out with the message that the 

program : Could not initialize egl display. I could not find answers related to this issue. 

Did you happen to come across similar issue? I would appreciate if you can share some information.

Thanks,

Murali

[Juozapas Adomaitis]

Hi, Murali,

As I wrote in my instructions, there is only one way to run a Qt Quick 2 application directly on BeagleBone Black. Namely as a single fullscreen application using the EGLFS platform. So make sure the graphical environment is not started (no X or Wayland), and run this in a console:

$ export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=eglfs

$ export QT_QPA_EVDEV_KEYBOARD_PARAMETERS="grab=1"

$ export QT_QPA_EVDEV_MOUSE_PARAMETERS="grab=1"

$ /path/to/the/dashboard/example

If this doesn't work, your OpenGL ES drivers are probably not installed correctly and you should try following my instructions to install them.

[Jean-Sebastien Stoezel]

Hi Juozapas:

Thank you for sharing your experience. I have been cross compiling widget based applications with LinuxFB for the BeagleBone and I would like to switch to Qt Quick2. I am guessing that since you got Qt Quick to run on the BBB you may also know how to compile Qt Quick.

So far, whenever I compile for eglfs I get an error message along the lines: "openGL is not configured or available for this platform". I have googled around and I have people reporting the same issue, though I have yet to find a solution for this.

Would it be possible for you to share how you got to compile Qt with Qt Quick and eglfs?

Regards,

JS