# The display service: a framebuffer compositor

The [framebuffer](../os-development/framebuffer.md) the loader hands over is a flat block of pixel
memory, and the kernel's [bootstrap console](../../system/kernel/console.zig) draws text
into it directly. That console is a stop-gap. The **display service**
(`system/services/display/`) is the real thing: an ordinary ring-3 process that *owns*
the framebuffer, composes a stack of **layers** into an off-screen back buffer, and
**presents** finished frames to the screen — the display half of the GUI track
([vision.md](../vision.md)), the sibling of the [input service](input.md).

This note is the architecture and the reasoning behind it. The concrete build order
lives in [display-plan.md](display-plan.md).

## First, a distinction that shapes everything: GOP vs. the PCI device

It is tempting to think "the GOP framebuffer" and "the VGA-compatible display
controller in the PCIe tree" are two different things. They are not — they are **two
interfaces to the same silicon, at different times and different levels**, and knowing
which one you're holding decides what you can do.

- **GOP is firmware's *temporary* driver** for the display controller. It gives you a
  linear framebuffer pointer and can set video modes — but only until
  `ExitBootServices`. The loader already leans on this: [`queryFramebuffer`](../../boot/efi.zig)
  reads the monitor's EDID, picks the native mode, and calls `set_mode` **before**
  exiting ([gop.md](../os-development/gop.md)). Once the kernel runs, GOP is **gone** — no `set_mode`, no
  mode list, no EDID. What survives is the frozen snapshot in
  [`BootInformation.framebuffer`](../../system/boot-handoff.zig): `{base, width, height,
  pitch, format, refresh_hz}`, and nothing more.

- **The PCI class-0x03 device is the raw controller** — BARs, config space, registers,
  IO ports. It is what you actually *own* after boot. On QEMU's emulated adapter
  ([`-device VGA,edid=on`](../../build/qemu.zig), the Bochs VBE/DISPI model) the `base` GOP handed
  you *is* that device's linear-framebuffer BAR — the same physical memory, seen through
  a different door. On a real discrete GPU, GOP's `base` is an aperture inside the GPU's
  VRAM BAR. danos already decodes this device
  ([pci-class.zig](../../library/device/pci/pci-class.zig) has the full `display` namespace, and
  `pci-bus` already reports it to the [device manager](device-manager.md) with its class
  triple) — but nothing binds it yet.

What that difference costs you, concretely:

| You want to…                              | Dumb GOP framebuffer (boot handoff) | Native device driver (PCI 0x03)          |
|-------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|------------------------------------------|
| **Report** the current mode              | ✅ from the handoff                 | ✅                                        |
| **Change resolution / bpp at runtime**   | ❌ GOP is gone                      | ✅ program DISPI regs / virtio-gpu queue  |
| **Re-read EDID, enumerate monitor modes** | ❌                                  | ✅ the device exposes an EDID block       |
| **Refresh rate**                         | ❌ (virtual anyway)                 | only a real KMS driver — far future       |
| **vblank / tear-free present**           | ❌ no vblank signal                 | ✅ vblank IRQ + page-flip (real GPUs)     |
| **Works on the Pi (no PCI VGA)**         | ✅ VideoCore hands a simple FB      | ✗ per-device                              |

The lesson: the **portable base for the whole GUI stack is the GOP / boot-handoff linear
framebuffer**. Runtime mode-setting is a *per-device upgrade* layered on top — and on
the Raspberry Pis there is no PCI VGA at all, so the neutral framebuffer is the only
thing all three target machines share. That is why the display service is built on the
dumb framebuffer first, with the native backend as an optional module behind the same
interface.

## Two constraints this service exists to meet

Like the input service — which existed partly to motivate the asynchronous
[`ipc_send`](ipc.md) primitive — the display service runs straight into two limits the
rest of the system hasn't had to face:

1. **The framebuffer is kernel-only today.** It arrives through the boot handoff, is
   mapped into the kernel's physmap, and is touched only by
   [`console.zig`](../../system/kernel/console.zig). It is *not* a
   [devices-broker](../../system/kernel/devices-broker.zig) node, so
   `device.claim`/`mmio_map` cannot reach it, and there is no framebuffer
   [syscall](../os-development/syscall.md). A user-space display service needs a **new mechanism just to
   touch the pixels**. (See "The handoff" below — this is built.)

2. **danos had no cross-process shared memory.** At v1 the memory syscalls were `mmap`
   (private, zeroed), `mmio_map` (a *claimed device's* MMIO), and `dma_alloc` (new
   pinned physical). The block driver's "pass a buffer by physical address" trick
   ([block/protocol.zig](../../library/protocol/block/block-protocol.zig)) works *only because its
   consumer is DMA hardware*. A compositor that CPU-reads and blends client layers can't
   use it — it would have to *map* another process's memory, which nothing allowed. v1
   sidesteps it entirely (see "What v1 does not do"); v2 has since built the primitive
   (`shared_memory_create` / `shared_memory_map` / `shared_memory_physical` —
   [display-v2.md](display-v2.md)).

## Architecture

```
  kernel  ── owns the boot framebuffer; bootstrap console only
     │   seeds a display-class device node from BootInformation.framebuffer
     │   (ResourceKind.memory = [base, height*pitch], write-combining hint,
     │    plus DisplayInfo{width, height, pitch, format, refresh_hz})
     ▼
  display service   (system/services/display/, /protocol/display)      ← the compositor
     │   device.claim(display node) → mmio_map(WRITE-COMBINING) = FRONT buffer (the LFB)
     │   mmap(cacheable) a BACK buffer of the same geometry
     │   owns:  an ordered LAYER STACK  +  a per-frame DAMAGE tracker (rect list or tile grid)
     │   loop:  composite dirty layers → back buffer → present dirty rects → front
     │   backend is an INTERNAL interface: {gop-fb} at boot; {virtio-gpu} on hot-attach (v2)
     ▼   reached by name (open /protocol/display); clients drive it over the display protocol
  ┌────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┐
  drawing clients (v1)                  surface clients (deferred)
  display commands:             display surfaces:
    create_layer / configure_layer        shared_memory_create → pass as a capability →
    fill_rect / blit_tile / damage         the compositor maps & composites the
    present                                client-rendered bitmap directly
```

The bring-up sequence mirrors a hardware driver's — it is the
[`usb-xhci-bus` `initialise`](../../system/drivers/usb-xhci-bus/usb-xhci-bus.zig) shape
(claim → `mmio_map` → run loop) — and the request/reply service shell is the
[FAT](../../system/services/fat/fat.zig) / [input](../../system/services/input/input.zig) shape
([`service.run`](../../library/kernel/service.zig) over the dispatch table its
protocol module generates through
[`envelope.Define`](../os-development/protocol-namespace.md) — one request and
reply type per verb, and the layer id in the packet header's `target`).

**One process, for now.** v1 is a *single* service that both owns the framebuffer and
composites — it does not split a "framebuffer driver" from a "compositor" the way input
splits `ps2-bus` from the input service. The backend (dumb FB vs. a native GPU) is an
*internal* interface, not a process boundary. That boundary earns its keep only when a
second backend or a second monitor appears; until then it is complexity with no payoff.

## The handoff: a device node + a write-combining map

The framebuffer crosses into user space through the machinery that already exists for
every other device, rather than a bespoke syscall — so it inherits ownership,
release-on-death, and re-claim-on-restart for free (the [resilience](../os-development/resilience.md)
story: a crashed display service returns the LFB to the kernel, and its restart
re-claims it).

- The kernel seeds a synthetic **display-class** node into the
  [devices-broker](../../system/kernel/devices-broker.zig) at init (`seedDisplay`), from
  `BootInformation.framebuffer`: one `ResourceKind.memory` resource spanning
  `[base, height*pitch]`, tagged **write-combining**, plus a small
  `DisplayInfo{width, height, pitch, format, refresh_hz}` (the memory resource says *where*
  and *how big*; `DisplayInfo` says how to *interpret* the bytes — and `refresh_hz`, the
  panel refresh the loader computed from EDID before `ExitBootServices`, seeds the
  compositor's frame clock). The node carries no name or index; it is identified purely by
  its `display` device class.
- The service `device.claim`s it and `mmio_map`s the resource. The map is
  **write-combining**, not the strong-uncacheable that `mmio_map` uses for register
  MMIO. The kernel already programs a WC PAT slot for its own console
  ([`setupPat`](../../system/kernel/architecture/x86_64/paging.zig)); this reaches it from
  the user mapping path. **This matters:** an uncacheable framebuffer makes the
  back→front blit unusably slow.
- On `claim`, the kernel's bootstrap console goes quiet, so the two never fight over the
  LFB. A panic is the one exception — by then the service is likely dead anyway, and a
  panic on screen wins.

The display service is a **named boot service**: `init` spawns it by name alongside
`input`/`device-manager`/`fat` ([init.zig](../../system/services/init/init.zig)), and it
self-discovers the display node with `device.enumerate` (matching on `DeviceClass.display`). The [device manager](device-manager.md)
matching path (PCI class 0x03 → a driver) is reserved for the future *native* backend, not
this singleton synthetic node.

## Double buffering and the write-combining discipline

Two buffers, with deliberately different memory types:

- The **front buffer** is the LFB — **write-combining**: fast to *write*, slow to
  *read*. The rule is therefore **never read the front buffer**. Only ever stream into
  it, sequentially.
- The **back buffer** is ordinary **cacheable** RAM (`mmap`), the same geometry. All
  compositing happens here, where reads and read-modify-write blends are cheap.

So a frame is: compose every dirty layer into the cacheable back buffer, then **present**
— copy the changed regions back→front in sequential, WC-friendly writes. Two details the
[framebuffer](../os-development/framebuffer.md) note already establishes carry over: step rows by `pitch`,
not `width*4`; and handle both `rgbx` and `bgrx` [pixel formats](../os-development/gop.md).

## Flicker vs. tearing — what double buffering does and doesn't buy

These are two different artifacts, and the dumb framebuffer fixes exactly one of them:

- **Flicker** is the user seeing intermediate, half-drawn states (a clear-then-redraw
  flash). Double buffering **eliminates it completely** — the screen only ever receives
  whole, finished frames.
- **Tearing** is a present landing while the display's scanout beam is mid-frame, so the
  top of the screen shows the new frame and the bottom the old. Avoiding it requires
  presenting during the vertical blank (**vsync**) — which needs a vblank signal. **A
  dumb GOP framebuffer has no vblank.**

So v1 is **flicker-free**, and it *minimizes* the tear window by presenting only damaged
rectangles (less to copy → a smaller window in which the beam can catch a half-updated
frame), but it is **not tear-free**. Genuine vsync waits for a backend with a vblank IRQ
or a flush/flip path — a native-device capability, not something the firmware
framebuffer can offer. Stated plainly here so the limitation is understood, not
discovered.

## Layers and the client protocol

The compositor holds an **ordered stack of layers**. Each layer has a rectangle, a
z-order, a visibility flag, and a surface. Presenting walks the stack bottom-to-top,
painting each dirty layer into the back buffer, then flushes the damage to the front.
Damage is tracked by one of two interchangeable trackers behind a compile-time
`damage_mode` A/B switch ([display.zig](../../system/services/display/display.zig)): a
free-form dirty-rectangle **list** (tight bounds, heuristic merging) or a fixed 64-px
**tile grid** (exact O(1) merging, tile-quantized repaints) — the grid is the default;
[compositor.zig](../../system/services/display/compositor.zig) has both, with the trade-off
discussion.

In v1 the surfaces are **server-owned**, and clients draw into them with a small
immediate-mode command protocol — essentially the model early X used, and enough for a
shell, a terminal, a cursor, and a wallpaper:

| Operation          | Meaning                                                        |
|--------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| `info`             | report `{width, height, pitch, format}` of the display        |
| `create_layer`     | allocate a server-owned surface, return a layer handle        |
| `configure_layer`  | set a layer's rect, z-order, visibility                       |
| `destroy_layer`    | release a layer                                               |
| `fill_rect`        | fill a rectangle of a layer with a colour                     |
| `blit_tile`        | copy a small client-supplied pixel tile into a layer (inline) |
| `damage`           | mark a region of a layer dirty                                |
| `present`          | request a repaint: composited at the next frame-clock tick    |

Text is intentionally *not* an operation — a client renders glyphs by blitting tiles
(the [PSF font](../../system/kernel/font.psf) path the console already uses can move into a
client). Keeping the protocol to rectangles and tiles keeps the compositor small and the
policy in the client.

`present` is a *request*, not an immediate flush: the compositor runs a ~60 Hz **frame
clock** (a one-shot kernel timer re-armed on demand), and each tick composites all the
damage accumulated since the last one. Any number of client presents and cursor moves
inside one interval coalesce into a single repaint — the software stand-in for vblank
pacing on backends that have none (all of them today; see
[display-v2.md](display-v2.md), "Fenced is not vsync"). Bring-up paths that must put
pixels on screen synchronously (initialisation, the self-checks) bypass the clock.

## `display`

Clients speak the protocol through a new [`library/client/display/display.zig`](../../library/client/display/display.zig),
the [`block`](../../library/device/block/block.zig) shape (a cached `.display` lookup
with a boot-race retry): `display.info()`, a `Layer` handle with `fill` / `blitTile` /
`damage`, and `present()`. Application code never issues the raw syscalls — it calls the
client module, as with every other danos service.

## The cursor: a mouse-listener thread feeding the compositor

The compositor is the single owner of the framebuffer — only the main `service.run` loop
touches the backend and the layer stack. Tracking the mouse without breaking that
ownership is the display's first use of [threads](../os-development/threading.md): the service is built
multi-threaded (`addThreadedUserBinary`) and, at startup, spawns a **mouse-listener
thread** beside the compositor loop.

- **Listener thread.** Blocks on the input service's mouse stream
  (`input.subscribeMouse()`), accumulates the relative `dx`/`dy` motion into an absolute
  cursor position clamped to the screen, and hands it to the compositor. It never touches
  the compositor — so no lock guards the framebuffer. A parked `next()` leaves its core
  free to halt ([halting.md](../os-development/halting.md)).
- **The channel.** A single-slot *latest-value* cell (`CursorChannel`) guarded by a
  `Thread.Mutex`: the renderer wants where the cursor *is now*, not a replay of
  every delta, so a new position overwrites the old. The listener also **pokes** the
  compositor awake — the main loop is parked in `replyWait`, so the listener posts a
  zero-payload `ipc.send` to the compositor's endpoint, which arrives as a
  message-notification ([ipc.md](ipc.md)). The poke is *coalesced*: at most one is queued
  while the main loop has not drained the last, so a fast mouse cannot flood the endpoint.
- **Render.** On the poke, the main loop takes the latest position and moves the cursor —
  which is just a top-z compositor layer — with the existing `configure` + `present` path
  (it damages the old and new footprints, so only those two rectangles repaint).

Two threading facts shape this (both in [threading.md](../os-development/threading.md)). IPC **handles do
not cross threads**, so the listener can't reuse the main loop's endpoint handle — it
`ipc.lookup(.display)`s its *own* handle to the same endpoint to poke through. And a
multi-threaded service doing concurrent IPC is why the kernel's endpoint-create / register
/ lookup syscalls now serialize under the big kernel lock. Shared fate applies: a fault in
the listener takes the whole display down, and the supervisor restarts the process
([resilience.md](../os-development/resilience.md)).

## What v1 does not do (and why that's fine)

Two capabilities are deliberately out of the first cut. Neither reshapes anything above;
both are clean additions behind the interfaces v1 establishes.

- **Client-rendered surfaces (shared memory).** The fast path for a bitmap-heavy app is
  to render into its *own* buffer and hand the compositor a *reference*, not a stream of
  commands. That needs a cross-process shared-memory primitive — the natural
  generalization of the existing M13 [capability passing](driver-model.md)
  from *endpoints* to *memory objects* (`shared_memory_create(len) → {cap, virtual_address}`, pass `cap` on
  an `ipc_call`, receiver `shared_memory_map(cap) → virtual_address`). v1 avoids it because server-owned
  surfaces already prove the whole pipeline; v2 has since built exactly that primitive
  ([display-v2.md](display-v2.md)) — the client-surface path on top of it is still open.

- **Runtime mode-setting (a native backend).** Detecting the EDID mode list and changing
  resolution / bpp at runtime needs the raw PCI device. The first native backend — since
  built by v2 ([display-v2.md](display-v2.md)) — is virtio-gpu, behind the same
  internal backend interface the dumb framebuffer sits behind. Refresh-rate and colour
  management (a gamma LUT) are real-GPU-KMS territory, far beyond this.

## Verifying it

Four QEMU test cases ([tests.zig](../../system/kernel/tests.zig), `python3
test/qemu_test.py <case>`), each layering on the last:

- **`display`** — the kernel handoff: the seeded `display` device is shaped correctly and
  the claim → `mmio_map` leaf is genuinely **write-combining** (PAT entry 4), asserted at
  the page-table level.
- **`display-service`** — the compositor comes up: it claims the framebuffer, allocates
  the cacheable back buffer, presents a cleared frame through the double-buffer path
  (`display: online … / presented frame 0`), and a startup **self-check** composites two
  overlapping layers on the real framebuffer and reads them back — overlap = the top
  layer — logging `display: compositor self-check ok`.
- **`display-demo`** — the full pipeline from a separate process: the hardware-free
  [`display-demo`](../system/services/display-demo/) client (the
  [`input-source`](../test/system/services/input-source/) analog) drives layers — a wallpaper and
  a sliding rectangle — through the layer client API and heartbeats
  `display-demo: ok`, proving a frame travelled client → compositor → screen, exactly as
  the [input test](input.md) proves an event travels source → service → subscriber. It draws
  no cursor and reads no input — the cursor is the service's own (below), and the demo
  animates on its own frame timer, independent of the mouse (the test spawns `input`
  alongside it to keep that independence honest). The visible motion itself is a screenshot
  away via `zig build run-x86-64`.
- **`display-cursor`** — the mouse-listener thread end to end: with the `input` service up,
  `input-source mouse` publishes pure motion, and the display's listener thread accumulates
  it into a cursor position handed to the render loop over the `CursorChannel`. Once the
  cursor has tracked a run of that motion, the service logs
  `display: cursor tracking mouse ok`. Runs `smp: 4` — the compositor and listener threads
  execute on different cores, which is what surfaced the IPC-under-lock requirement above.

The compositor's pixel math (rectangle clipping, fill, composite, tile blit) and colour
packing are additionally covered by pure host unit tests under `zig build test`.

## See also

- [framebuffer.md](../os-development/framebuffer.md) — the linear framebuffer, pitch vs. width, `volatile`.
- [gop.md](../os-development/gop.md) — GOP, and why only linear RGBX/BGRX modes are paintable.
- [input.md](input.md) — the sibling service; the async `ipc_send` fan-out.
- [driver-model.md](driver-model.md) — claim / `mmio_map`, capability passing, the trust model.
- [device-manager.md](device-manager.md) — matching and supervision (the native backend's route).
- [display-plan.md](display-plan.md) — the ordered build-out.