Design And Implementation Of GUI In Embedded Linux

With the great development of computer hardware and software, applications of embedded systems are much boosted. Because of its good performance, Linux has also been widely accepted in the embedded system field. As one of the good human-machine interfaces, graphic user interface (GUI) is also adopted to enhance its usability of embedded products. However, Linux itself has no GUI, and the X Window has often been seen as the critic of low performance and bulk volume. Thus, it cannot be transplanted to embedded Linux directly.Based on the research of embedded Linux, a Linux kernel-based GUI (KGUI) was presented and implemented in this paper, which is a layered structure. Depending on this structure, the items were studied in much detail including small memory management, input abstract layer, graphics abstract layer, message queue, window management, and application programming interface.KGUI is designed and implemented as a driver module of virtual device, which runs in Linux kernel space and can be dynamically loaded and unloaded. Moreover, it does not adopt the similar C/S structure used in some embedded GUI and need not implement any process on inefficient inter-process communication. Therefore, it makes the system have as often seen of high-efficiency and small size, and can be applied in medium and low-grade embedded Linux products.