Guidance on CEF OSR in linux without x11 dependency

[deadbeef84]

I'm trying to make a headless (docker) build of an application (casparcg-server) that uses CEF.

I'm new to CEF, and I see that there's a lot of activity in areas that I believe are of interest to me (viz osr, shared texture support, ozone, etc), but I'm not sure what the current state is and what is possible.

I currently have an OpenGL context created using EGL. I would like CEF to do off-screen rendering (i.e. no window). I dont want to run an xserver so I need to get rid of the x11 dependency. If possible, it would be great if the osr could be hardware accelerated (perhaps through shared context/texture?).

Do I need ozone? If so, does the prebuilt binaries support ozone? What platform should I use?
Is there a minimal example to do what I'm asking? Could anyone provide some pointers where to start?

[magreenblatt]

A supported WM backend (x11, wayland, etc) is required to provide basic platform functionality. I suggest running your app with xvfb and using off-screen rendering to populate a texture.

[deadbeef84]

As far as I know, xvfb doesn't support hardware accelerated opengl which makes it a no-go as casparcg requires that.

I dont need any of the WM functionality (window, cursor, input, clipboard etc), from my understanding it looks like it should be possible to use --ozone-platform=headless or --ozone-platform=gbm, but maybe I'm on the wrong track?

[magreenblatt]

As far as I know, xvfb doesn't support hardware accelerated opengl which makes it a no-go as casparcg requires that.

I dont need any of the WM functionality (window, cursor, input, clipboard etc), from my understanding it looks like it should be possible to use --ozone-platform=headless or --ozone-platform=gbm, but maybe I'm on the wrong track?

We don't currently support that in CEF but it might be possible to get it working with code changes. You can see https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef/issues/2296 as a related example.

[deadbeef84]

Any updates here? I guess this boils down two two separate questions:

1. Can CEF run without x11? I don't quite understand the issue you linked, it looks like the merged PR-128 makes x11 dependency optional and enables ozone. What ozone platforms can be used with CEF? Does Aura/Views depend on x11?

2. Can I provide a hardware accelerated surface (OpenGL or Vulkan), for CEF to render directly to? Looks like this recently got a new issue https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef/issues/3263/implement-off-screen-rendering-using-the, so I'm guessing still not possible but maybe not too far away.

Thank you for your help.

[magreenblatt]

1. Can CEF run without x11? I don't quite understand the issue you linked, it looks like the merged PR-128 makes x11 dependency optional and enables ozone. What ozone platforms can be used with CEF? Does Aura/Views depend on x11?

CEF works with ozone backends for X11 and Wayland. Aura/Views works with both, and is required with Wayland.

2. Can I provide a hardware accelerated surface (OpenGL or Vulkan), for CEF to render directly to? Looks like this recently got a new issue https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef/issues/3263/implement-off-screen-rendering-using-the, so I'm guessing still not possible but maybe not too far away.

Not currently supported. PR #285 which adds accelerated surfaces with OSR is the closest currently available.