EPIC Umfeld on Raspberry Pi Can Now Do KMSDRM
Umfeld can now run via KMSDRM on RPIs. this is EPIC!1 but … yeah, why?
KMSDRM (Kernel Mode Setting + Direct Rendering Manager) is a video driver backend that allows rendering graphics directly to the screen without needing a windowing system like X11 or Wayland. on Raspberry Pi devices, it provides better performance, lower latency, and more direct control over the GPU, making it ideal for full-screen, embedded, or real-time applications like games, kiosks, or media players.
is what ChatGPT says … in other words: a nice, lightweight, high-performance way to run fullscreen applications.
i am extremely excited about this. on the one hand, this was one of the initial reasons to start Umfeld in the first place 2 and on the other hand, i feel it’s also a small-technology-style statement: thin linux distribution + umfeld application … perfection!
a few notes for this to work:
SDL3must be compiled with the KMSDRM backend enabled:cmake -B build -DSDL_VIDEO_KMSDRM=ON ...- if need be force the driver via environment variables before runnning the application:
export SDL_VIDEODRIVER=kmsdrm export SDL_RENDER_DRIVER=opengles2