Lumina Desktop Environment presentation at BSDCan 2015

1. Lumina DE:
Redefining the Desktop
Environment for Modern
Hardware
Ken Moore
PC-BSD/iXsystems
BSDCan
June 12th
, 2015

2. Modern Problems
with Graphical Interfaces
From the OS-perspective, everything computer-related
is heading toward unification.
● No longer need custom-written OS's for each
individual device (not counting different builds for
various architectures)
● Users want cross-compatibility between all their
devices (not just files, but settings and preferences
when migrating from one device to another)
● The main differences seem to come down to
default/supported configurations, allowing the
same OS to be used in a small router as well as in a
supercomputer.

3. Modern Problems
with Graphical Interfaces
From the interface-perspective, this unification still
has not occured.
● Interfaces have traditionally been designed for
particular types of systems with little flexibility (just
like the old OS's)
● I think interface designs have not made the
transition to a general-purpose model for a few
reasons:
– Physical screen size variations
– Input method variations
– Hardware capabilities (CPU & memory in
particular)

4. Modern Problems:
Display Sizes
Smartphones
3” -> 5”
Tablets
7” → 11”
Laptops
10” → 18”
TVs
30+”
Desktops
16” → 30”
800x480 →
2048x1536
320x480 →
720x1280
800x600 →
1920x1080
800x600 →
4096x2160
720x480 →
4096x2160
● How large should a button/icon be?
● Should the screen have reserved
space?
● Clearly, the interface should not be
identical across all the types of
devices due to the differing physical
size limitations!
www.xkcd.com/732

5. Modern Problems:
Input Methods
● Some correlations can be made between different
input types
Quick Touch ←→ Mouse Left-Click
Touch & Hold ←→ Mouse Right-Click
● Virtual Keyboards also help bridge the gap
● Input methods determine the types of available
interface elements
– Can lists be scrolled easily? (mouse wheel)
– Must buttons be large enough to touch?
Smartphones Tablets Laptops Desktops TV/Console
Touch
Touch
Keyboard
Mouse
Keyboard
Mouse
Keyboard
Controller
(Keyboard)

6. Modern Problems:
Hardware Specs
Smartphone Tablet Laptop Desktop TV/Console
CPU Speed
(GHz)
1 to 2.5 1 to 2.5 1 to 2.5 2 to 5 1 to 3
CPU Cores
2 or 4 2 or 4 2 to 7 2 to 8 2 to 8
Memory
(GB)
1 to 2 1 to 2 2 to 16 2 to 32 0.5 to 8
Storage
(GB)
0.5 to 16 8 to 32 128 to 512 256+ 16 to 512
● Storage does not seem to be much of a problem – the
amount available in even tiny devices is rapidly increasing
● The trends seem to favor multiple low-power CPU's
● Memory available is still quite limited on small devices
compared to most desktop systems (particularly gaming
systems)

7. Modern Problems
with Graphical Interfaces
In order to fix all of these problems, we need to
perform a fundamental re-design of how a desktop
environment is assembled and distributed.
● Ensure that the minimum requirements easily
accomodate the least-powerful of the target
platforms (smartphones in this case)
● Eliminate any platform-specific dependencies (web
browsers, general-purpose applications). Let the
platform distributor add in those applications as
necessary.
● For every point of large variation, insert a generic
abstraction layer where the functionality can easily
be changed to support the current platform.

8. Modern Solutions:
Display Sizes
There are a few things that can be done to
accommodate all the various display sizes:
● Define all the element sizes by metrics which are
resolution-independant (such as point sizes for fonts
and percentage of screen for interface elements)
● Allow different window-placement algorithms for the
various platforms
● Create multiple interface elements with duplicate
functionality but tailored for different platforms
● Allow the interface to be initially created based on a
single configuration file provided by the distributor,
but able to be changed later by the user

9. Modern Solutions:
Input Methods
Accounting for all the various input methods is
actually not that difficult, it just needs a bit of
planning ahead of time.
● Provide an optional set of input conversion routines
in the background (touch/controller events to
keyboard/mouse events for example)
● Provide a virtual keyboard plugin/utility
● Create multiple interface elements with duplicate
functionality but tailored for different platforms
● Enforce a minimum size for buttons/actions as
necessary

10. Modern Solutions:
Hardware Specs
While available disk space does not appear to be a
major hurdle, the amount of available memory
seems to be the bigger issue that needs to be
addressed.
● Seperate the overall desktop session (which is
always running), from any optional
interfaces/plugins (which may require more
memory).
● Create multiple interface elements with duplicate
functionality but with different runtime overhead.
● Use a pre-compiled language for development
instead of an interpreted scripting language. Once
selected, use that language exclusively.

11. The Lumina Desktop
Environment
What is it?
● Created/distributed under the 3-clause BSD license
● Written from scratch in C++/Qt(5)
● Compliant with the FreeDesktop/XDG standards
● Currently version 0.8.4 (still in beta)
– Uses Fluxbox for window management
– Only requires some other X libs/utils – no Linux
toolkits (DBUS, ConsoleKit, policyKit, systemd,
HALD, etc)
● Already available for: PC-BSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD,
Dragonfly BSD, kFreeBSD, Debian, and “Linux”.

12. The Lumina Desktop
Environment
How is it designed?
● Based on a plugin-oriented design philosophy.
● The main components of the DE are:
– The library (libLuminaUtils.so)
– The session (non graphical, background
management system)
– The desktop (graphical – one per output device)
– The interface plugins (desktop, panel, and menu)
– The “lumina-open” utility (tied into “xdg-open” for
cross-DE application usage)
– Other small utilities are available for traditional
desktop use

13. Lumina-DE: Utilities
xterm
lumina-fileinfo
lumina-fm
lumina-info
lumina-screenshot
lumina-xconfig
lumina-search
xscreensaver
Fluxbox
lumina-open
lumina-config
numlockx
Lumina-DE
Login Manager / X11 Startup
Optional
Functionality Required
Required
xbrightness

14. Lumina-DE: Session
Operating System
Display Server (X11)
Visual Interface(s)Window Manager
Screensaver
Lumina Session
System Tray Task Manager Config Watcher
LDesktop
LuminaX11
(ICCCM/EWMH)
Services &
Applications
LuminaOS

15. Lumina-DE: Interface
Desktop Interface (Virtual root window with wallpaper – one per X11 monitor)
Panel(s)
Desktop Plugin Area
LPanel
Panel Plugins
● Usually Visible
● Easy Access
● Limited Space
● 1D Arrangement
Context Menu
LPPlugin
Desktop Plugins
● Covered by Apps
● Size/Location Config
● 2D Arrangement
● “Embedded Apps”
LDPlugin &
LDPluginContainer
Menu Plugins
● Run on Demand
● Menus/Shortcuts
● Desktop Lock/Unlock
● Log Out Prompt

16. The Lumina Desktop
Environment
How is it configured?
● Text based configuration files located in the
~/.lumina directory.
● For new users, the configurations are generated
based on the system-default luminaDesktop.conf
file.
● For every new version of the desktop, the
session/config files are evaluated for any changes
that might be necessary for backwards
compatibility (and those changes are performed
automatically to prevent loss of service)

17. Lumina-DE: System Defaults
Located at: [/usr/local]/etc/luminaDesktop.conf
● Simple syntax: “<variable>=<value>” with “#”
before comments
● Examples:
– session.playlog[in/out]audio=[true/false]
– session.default.webbrowser=<path to *.desktop file>
– desktop.backgroundfiles=<list of files for wallpapers>
– desktop.backgroundrotateminutes=<positive integer>
– [desktop/panel/menu].plugins=<list of plugins to use>
– favorites.[add/remove]=<file/dir path>
● This routine is extremely easy to modify, so if there
is some particular configurable which you need
access to, just let me know!

18. The Lumina Desktop
Environment
Does the DE have a plan for supporting Wayland?
● The Lumina desktop project keeps the usage of all
non-Qt libraries/standards highly segrated within the
source code to attempt to ensure an easy transition to
other systems at a later date.
● These components are located in specialized classes
within the LuminaUtils library:
– LuminaX11 (X11/XCB library usage)
– LuminaXDG (FreeDesktop standards support)
– LuminaOS (Operating system support)
– LuminaThemes (Theme engine for the desktop/utilities)
– LuminaSingleApplication (Single application framework)
– LuminaUtils (General purpose functions)

19. Lumina-DE: OS Interface
PC-BSD FreeBSD OpenBSD DragonFly kFreeBSD Debian Linux
Control
Panel
Yes No No No No No No
App Store
Yes
AppCafe
No No No No
Yes
synaptic
No
Qt5 Config No No Qt4-only Qt4-only Qt4-only
Yes
qt5ct
Qt4-only
List Mounted
Devices
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Screen
Brightness
Hardware &
Software
Software
Hardware w/
xbacklight
Software
Hardware w/
xbacklight
Hardware w/
xbacklight
Hardware w/
xbacklight
Audio
Volume
Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Audio Mixer
Yes
pc-mixer
No No
Yes
pc-mixer
Yes
pavucontrol
Yes
pavucontrol
Yes
pavucontrol
System
Suspend
Yes No No No No
Yes
dbus →
systemd
No
Battery
Monitor
Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Yes
No est. time
Yes
No est. time

20. Lumina-DE: OS Interface
PC-BSD FreeBSD OpenBSD DragonFly kFreeBSD Debian Linux
Filesystem
Capacity
Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Checksums Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
CPU
Temperature
Yes Yes No No No Yes No
CPU Usage Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Memory
Usage
Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Shutdown
Access
Check
Yes, also
with update
process
checks
Yes Yes
No
(Always
enabled)
No
(Always
enabled)
Yes
dbus →
systemd
No
(Always
enabled)
Note: This chart is accurate as of Lumina version 0.8.5-devel (6/2/15)

21. Lumina-DE:
Near-Future Plans
● Create a new window manager (lumina-wm)
– Combines functionality of a WM, screensaver,
and power manager.
– This will remove Fluxbox and xscreensaver from
the dependencies.
● Integrate Capsicum usage on FreeBSD
– Still in evaluation period
– If you are familiar with this security framework
and want to help out, please talk to me!
● Continue to create additional plugins, color
schemes, and themes

22. Questions?
Slides available online at:
http://www.slideshare.net/beanpole135/