[directfb-users] Running without root privileges

[Tony Houghton <h@realh.co.uk>]

I know this has been asked before, but there wasn't a satisfactory
answer. Is it simply not possible to use DirectFB without root
privileges? I ultimately want to use it with VDR, and I'd rather not run
that as root.

I've just set up DirectFB 0.9.21 with a Matrox G450, using the HOWTO for
reference. It works fine with MPlayer, but only as root. If I'm not root
it gives a "KD_GRAPHICS failed" error. I looked at the source and saw
that that error is generated when it tries to perform a KD_GRAPHICS
ioctl on a /dev/tty* device (there is another place where it generates
the same error in response to a SIGUSR2, but I changed the error
messages to confirm it was the first one). I had already set appropriate
permissions on the /dev/fusion and /dev/tty[0-9]* devices though.

-- 
TH * http://www.realh.co.uk