FAQ
Q) Do I need to pay FMSoft Technologies license fee if I use MiniGUI?
A) FMSoft releases MiniGUI under GPL; you can use them freely if you use MiniGUI under GPL license to develop GPL'd applications. However, the release of your applications that are based on MiniGUI should also complies with GPL. If you use MiniGUI to develop commercial applications, i.e., you do not want to release them under terms and conditions of GPL, you then should get a commercial license from FMSoft Technologies.
Q) What kinds of products that use MiniGUI are successfully launched in market?
A) MiniGUI is widely used in products like mobile phones, IPTVs, digital TVs, industry control systems, information terminals, industrial meters, and so on. For detailed introduction for some typical products, you can visit here.
Q) Which operating systems does MiniGUI support?
A) By now, MiniGUI provides support for many popular embedded operating systems including Linux/uClinux, VxWorks, ThreadX, FreeRTOS, RTEMS, RT-Thread, Nucleus, pSOS, OSE, eCos, and even uC/OS-II. MiniGUI can also run on Win32 platform.
Q) Which CPUs have MiniGUI running on successfully so far? Moreover, what is the lowest frequency of CPU that MiniGUI needs?
A) There are successful cases for MiniGUI running on ARM-based CPUs (such as StongARM, xScale, S3C2410, S3C2440, EM8511, EM8620), PowerPC, MIPS, M68k, FRV. On these CPUs, the one with lowest main frequency is about 20 MHz (20 MIPS).
Q) Would MiniGUI support monochrome LCD?
A) Yes. Actually, MiniGUI can support almost all LCD controllers in various modes, such as monochrome, gray, 256-color, 4096-color, and 65536-color.
Q) Which resolution of screen can MiniGUI run properly?
A) In theory, the running of MiniGUI is not influenced by the resolution of screen.
Q) During library compilation, why does the mistake below occur sometimes?
can not make hard link filename.o to filename.lo.
A) Symbol links and hard links are the specialized file types in UNIX file system. If you compile library maintained by Automake/Autoconf script, you cannot create these links on a non-UNIX file system. Please check your file system to make sure if it is a FAT32 file system.
Q) When I use Open File Dialog Box, why does the mistake below occur?
undefined reference to ShowOpenDialog
A) The function ShowOpenDialog is included in the mGUtils component. If you need to use this function, you should include the header file: <mgutils/mgutils.h>. When you make the executable, please make sure to link mGUtils(-lmgutils). In addition, if you run MiniGUI on some embedded operating systems, which lacks support for file system, you can't use the Open File Dialog Box.
Q) My system does not support 64-bit integer. Is the data type of Uint64 in MiniGUI essential?
A) The data type of Uint64 in MiniGUI is used to generate complex graphics. If your system does not support 64-bit integer, you can use the following configuration option to disable the usage of 64-bit integer:
--disable-fixedmath
Q) On Linux, How do I capture the screen of MiniGUI?
A) When running MiniGUI program, you can capture the screen to a BMP file in the current directory by pressing PrtScr key. The captured screen will be saved as a BMP file named 0-<NO>.bmp, therein <NO> is the number of times of pressing Ctrl + PrtScr key. You can save the BMP file of the current active main window as <HWND>-<NO>.bmp, therein <HWND> is the handle of the active main window while <NO> is the number of times of pressing Ctrl + PrtScr key.
Q) Under MiniGUI-Processes runtime mode, how would I switch from MiniGUI to other console?
A) Under MiniGUI-Processes runtime mode, if you are using console or libinput IAL engine, you can switch from MiniGUI to other virtual console by pressing Right_Ctrl + F<n> key, also, you can quit MiniGUI by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Backspace key. Currently, MiniGUI-Threads mode does not provide such functions.
Q) Why does the following message show when I run programs in mg-samples on Linux?
AttachSharedResource: No such file or directory
Error in step 6: Can not attach shared resource!
Initialize minigui failure when using /etc/MiniGUI.cfg as cfg file.
A) If you configure MiniGUI as MiniGUI-Processes or MiniGUI-Standalone, you should run mginit program first. As MiniGUI-Processes mode adopts a Client/Server architecture, you have to first start up the sever program, mginit, before running other client programs. In mg-samples package, you should run mginit in mginit/ directory first, then run demo programs in other directories.
Q) Why do I see the information below when I run MiniGUI?
GAL ENGINE: Error when opening /dev/fb0: Permission denied. Please check your kernel config.
GAL: Init GAL engine failure.
Error in step 3: Can not initialize graphics engine!
Initialize minigui failure when using /usr/local/etc/MiniGUI.cfg as cfg file
A) The main reason is that you have not activated the frame buffer driver yet, or the permission of /dev/fb0 is incorrect.
Q) Under MiniGUI-Processes runtime mode, why does it give error information below when I run mginit in mg-samples?
Error in step 2 : There is already an instance of minigui.
Initialize minigui failure when using /usr/local/etc/MiniGUI.cfg as config file.
A) Usually, there are two possible reasons. One is that you have already run an mginit program; the other is you did not exit MiniGUI properly when you run mginit last time. If it is the second reason, you can delete minigui file and mginit file in /var/tmp/ directory. If it still does not work, please restart your computer.
Q) Why do the following statements show when I run MiniGUI?
NEWGAL: Does not find matched engine: fbcon.
Error in step 3: Can not get graphics engine information!
A) The possible problem is that fbcon NEWGAL engine fails when initializing frame buffer device. The main reasons are that your kernel does not support frame buffer driver, or does not activate frame buffer driver, or you have no proper access permission to open /dev/fb0 device.
Q) On Linux, what is the meaning of the error message below?
vesafb does not support changing the video mode
A) It is a warning that can be ignored. The VESA frame buffer driver does not support display mode switching while running. It can only set video mode by the boot option for kernel. Moreover, once set, it cannot be changed unless you modify the boot option and restart your system.
Q) On Linux, what is the meaning of the error message below?
NEWGAL: No video mode large enough for the resolution specified.
NewGAL: Set video mode failure.
A) The main reason is that the display resolution being set in MiniGUI.cfg is higher than the one supported by your NEWGAL engine. Therefore, you can try to set a lower resolution by modify MiniGUI.cfg file.