JavaFX SDK 8 on Beagleboard

[David Hill]

On 1/8/13 Jan 8, 11:51 AM, Richard Bair wrote:
> Lemme get one of the embedded guys to respond.
>
> Thanks
> Richard
>
> On Dec 30, 2012, at 11:04 PM, Conrad Winchester <conrad at chiwestern.com> wrote:
>
>> An update for you all,
>>
>> I have managed to get the JDK 8 running on a Hardkernel ODROID-U2 (http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G135341370451), and so the 'No such file or directory issue' seems to be very specific to the Beagleboard-Xm.
>>
>> However, when I try to run JavaFX samples it crashes, because the EGL2 libraries are not installed in the Linaro Ubuntu that I have for the U2.
>>
>> I am going to try to build/install the EGL libraries for the board, but am not sure how easy that will be. Can anybody advise?
>>
>> Conrad Winchester
Speaking as one of the "embedded guys".... :-)

Generally EGL drivers are "closed source", and provided by the vendor as a black box. Therefore, it is pretty unlikely you are going to get hard float versions, at least for a while. I think there are a couple of exceptions though I have not yet worked with them directly yet.

I am not aware OSS driver code for the PVR-535 GPU that is in the Beagle-Xm. PVR in particular seems to like playing its drivers close to home, something that crops up with the Intel GMA 500 (which is a PVR-53x) which is one of the most common netbook GPUs. Search on 'linux gma500" and you will see what I mean :-(

If you find a way to get or build the drivers hard float for the beagle xm I would be interested in hearing about it !

Certainly hard float can make a difference. On the PI we saw approximately a 20% jump in rendering performance in some of the internal JFX tests. Given that hardfloat just changes register calling conventions between Java and our native code, we suspect that most of that 20% is probably in the drivers, rather than JFX.

The JDK 8 beta (which is hard float) will probably initialize EGL correctly if you do get a hard float build of the drivers, but it is not for certain. It would seem that each of the vendors has a slightly different way to initialize EGL and set up things like the "hardware cursor" that we use. We are actively working to improve that support, and to make it so that the single binary will do a better job of picking the right path. My team is certainly looking forward to early next year when we can complete the open sourcing of our porting layer, allowing more people to help us get the lights on for devices we don't have.

Dave Hill.
JavaFX Embedded team.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 30 Dec 2012, at 12:18, Conrad Winchester <conrad at chiwestern.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I have been experimenting with JavaFX on the Beagleboard xM for a while now. I also have a raspberry Pi, but find it's power supply instabilities and weaknesses very frustrating, and so much prefer the more stable beaglebord for tinkering. In particular I am working with Tinkerforge equipment that really makes the poor old Pi expire :-(
>>>
>>> The JDK8 JavaFX ARM Preview has just been released for the Raspberry Pi. I have it running, but , as stated above, using the raspberry pi with anything attached to the USB without a powered hub is nigh on impossible and so I would love to use it on the Beagleboard.
>>>
>>> Unfortunately it does not seem to work. In fact the Beagleboard does not even recognise any of the executables as files in the JDK8 JavaFX ARM release. If I cd /opt/jdk1.8.0/bin and do a ./java -version I get the following error message
>>>
>>> -sh: ./java: No such file or directory
>>>
>>> even though if I do an ls, I can definitely see it there.
>>>
>>> Is this a sign of things to come? Are the various linux/arm chip configurations so different that there will always be a multitude of different Java ARM installs to cater for every combination? Or is there a magic thing that I can do to solve the issue?
>>>
>>> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>>>
>>> Conrad Winchester


-- 
David Hill <David.Hill at Oracle.com>
Java Embedded Development

"The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory."
-- Paul Fix