zygaena / zports
|
Files Changesets Issues Pull Requests Releases
root / docs / PHASE1A_RESULTS.md
PHASE1A_RESULTS.md markdown 37 lines 3.4 KB
Raw

XLibre Desktop — Phase 1a Results

Completed: 2026-07-22 on hh-alpha9. Outcome: a working XLibre + Openbox X11 desktop over VNC, built entirely from zports via Coral. Screenshot: hammerhead/docs/roadmap/hammerhead-desktop-phase1a.png (Openbox-decorated st terminal, root@hammerhead shell, 1280×800).

What shipped

57 packages installed on alpha9. New ports this phase (~50), by layer:

  • Tooling: util-macros, nasm, meson, gperf, unzip (+ built existing python, ninja, mercurial)
  • Protocol: xorgproto, xtrans, xcb-proto
  • Client libs (M2): libpthread-stubs, libXau, libXdmcp, libxcb, libX11, libXext, libXrender, libXfixes, libXdamage, libXrandr, libXi, libXtst, libXcursor, libXinerama, libXcomposite, libICE, libSM, libXt, libXmu, libXpm, pixman, libxkbfile
  • Font/render (M3): libpng, libjpeg-turbo, freetype, fontconfig, libfontenc, libXfont2, libXft, font-util, dejavu-fonts, pcre2, glib2 (2.88.2), fribidi, harfbuzz, cairo, pango
  • Server + runtime (M4): xlibre-xserver (25.1.8, Xvfb), xkbcomp, xkeyboard-config, xauth, xinit, libvncserver, x11vnc
  • Desktop (M5): openbox (3.6.1), st (0.9.3)

Verified milestone

Xvfb :99 + a libX11 client → CLIENT CONNECTED: 1024x768 depth 24, vendor=XLibre. Full stack (Xvfb+openbox+st+x11vnc) runs on alpha9:5900; screenshot shows the live interactive desktop.

Systemic illumos-porting gotchas found + standardized (in plan templates + memory)

  1. libtool static-only — pre-generated configure lacks a hammerhead arm → silent .a-only builds. Fix: sed the dynamic_linker case (nested for freetype: builds/unix/configure).
  2. __EXTENSIONS__ + _POSIX_PTHREAD_SEMANTICS — illumos hides POSIX/BSD prototypes + uses Solaris-draft _r signatures without them; meson's has_function() false-positives.
  3. Meson rpath — Meson strips rpath on install + /usr/local/lib not on default ld path → bake -R$PREFIX/lib (+ added /usr/local/lib to alpha9 crle).
  4. Hammerhead sysname ≠ sunos — recurred in glib meson checks and the XLibre server os-layer (patched).
  5. autoreconf regenerates config.sub without the hammerhead patch; CMake bundled-static needs -DCMAKE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE=ON; coral needs unzip for .zip sources.

Coral bugs filed (see CORAL_ISSUES.md) — for the Coral team

  • CORAL-1: relative coral build <cat>/<name> exit-127-fails (use absolute path).
  • CORAL-2: bundled TLS trust store rejects some hosts (nasm.us) — pre-stage the tarball.

XLibre patches (upstream candidates — stored in base/xlibre-xserver/patches/)

  • 0001 — extend the os/meson.build sunos guard to accept Hammerhead's sysname (lights up -lsocket/-lnsl).
  • 0002 — fix inverted re-arm check in the illumos event-ports (PORT_SOURCE_FD) ospoll backend; without it the server accepted only ONE client for its lifetime. Worth contributing back to XLibre.

Workflow

Mercurial on both machines: author on Linux → hg commit/push → alpha9 hg pull -u → coral build (absolute path). Ports build + test on alpha9 (single-VM ports pattern). alpha8 remains the base-OS build VM; alpha7 retired.

Next

Phase 1b — lightweight X11-native CBPP-look desktop (tint2, conky, picom, feh, dmenu + mpv/mupdf/nnn). Phase 1c — Qt6 + LXQt durable rich-app tier. Phase 2 — native VM console (retarget kdrive/Xfbdev to illumos visual_io). See hammerhead/docs/roadmap/DESKTOP_XLIBRE_OPENBOX.md.