Driver for Broadcom VideoCore IV (Raspberry Pi)

[Vojtech Horky]

Implement a driver for the graphics unit in Raspberry Pi pluggable into the HelenOS graphics stack.

Details

HelenOS can boot on Raspberry Pi but the output is currently limited to serial only.

The goal of this ticket is to implement a driver for the VideoCore IV chip that would be pluggable to the graphics stack and to the device driver framework implemented in HelenOS. The driver should at least support the HDMI port of Raspberry Pi and setting the optimal graphics mode depending on the output device connected to the HDMI port.

What Gains and Benefits will this bring?

Currently HelenOS does not provide any form of graphical output when running on Raspberry Pi. Adding support for graphical output would improve the experience when using HelenOS on this platform.

Difficulty

Medium

Required skills

A successful applicant will have good skills of programming in the C language and the ability to survive in a non-standard non-POSIX environment. Previous experience with driver or graphics stack implementation would be beneficial.

Documentation

• GUI user's guide
• ​Announcement of the graphics stack at HelenOS mailing list
• ​lp:~petr-koupy/helenos/gui (original GUI branch)
• ​BCM2835 documentation
• ​VideoCore IV Architecture Reference Guide

Possible mentors

HelenOS Core Team, Martin Decky