Westeros

Westeros is a lightweight Wayland compositor library that enables applications to create one or more Wayland displays. It is designed to be compatible with applications built for standard Wayland compositors and is structured as a library rather than a standalone application, allowing it to be embedded inside a host process. It supports three compositor modes: a normal compositor that renders its composited output directly to the screen, a nested compositor that connects to another compositor as a client and renders onto a surface of that parent compositor, and an embedded compositor whose composited output is driven by the hosting application through explicit calls. This flexibility allows Westeros to act as the top-level display server on a device, as an intermediary layer in a compositor chain, or as an off-screen compositor integrated into an application's rendering pipeline.

At the device level, Westeros provides a Wayland display endpoint that UI frameworks, media players, and other application runtimes connect to as Wayland clients. At the module level, it exposes a C API for creating, configuring, and starting compositor instances, a pluggable renderer interface that allows vendor-specific rendering backends to be loaded at runtime, and a set of Wayland protocol extensions — Simple Shell, VPC, linux-dmabuf, and explicit sync — that provide surface management and video path control beyond the base Wayland protocol.

flowchart LR

classDef Apps stroke:#00B9F1,fill:#E6F7FD,stroke-width:2px
classDef RDKMW stroke:#75D701,fill:#F1FFE6,stroke-width:2px
classDef VL stroke:#808080,fill:#F2F2F2,stroke-width:2px

    subgraph Apps["Apps and Runtimes"]
        RDKUI["UI"]
        FBApps["Firebolt Apps"]
        WPE_RT["WPE Runtime"]
    end

    subgraph RDKMW_SUB["RDK Core Middleware"]
        AM["App Manager"]
        Rialto["Rialto"]
        Westeros["Westeros Wayland Compositor"]
        Thunder["WPEFramework Thunder"]
    end

    subgraph VL_SUB["Vendor Layer"]
        SOCHAL["westeros-soc SOC Render HAL"]
        BSP["BSP"]
        DRM["DRM EGL Libraries"]
    end

    RDKUI -->|Wayland Protocol| Westeros
    FBApps -->|Wayland Protocol| Westeros
    WPE_RT -->|Wayland Protocol| Westeros
    Westeros -->|Renderer Module API| SOCHAL

Key Features & Responsibilities:

• Multiple Compositor Modes: Westeros operates as a normal (top-level), nested, or embedded compositor. A nested compositor connects to a parent Wayland display and forwards its composited output as a client surface; an embedded compositor exposes its scene only when the host application triggers composition explicitly via WstCompositorComposeEmbedded.
• Pluggable Renderer Interface: The rendering backend is loaded at runtime from a shared library specified by WstCompositorSetRendererModule. Renderer modules implement a defined function table (WstRenderer) covering surface create/destroy, buffer commit, geometry, opacity, z-order, crop, and DMA-buf operations.
• Surface and Shell Protocol Support: Westeros implements wl_compositor, wl_shell, and one build-selected xdg-shell variant (v4, v5, or stable) server-side. Each client surface is tracked as a WstSurface with full position, size, opacity, z-order, and popup relationship state.
• Input Routing: Keyboard, pointer, and touch input is injected via the compositor API (WstCompositorKeyEvent, WstCompositorPointerMoveEvent, WstCompositorPointerButtonEvent, WstCompositorTouchEvent) and dispatched through standard Wayland seat protocols to the focused surface. Keyboard layout is managed via libxkbcommon with configurable key repeat delay and rate.
• Video Path Control (VPC): The proprietary vpc Wayland protocol extension allows a video surface to declare whether its content follows a hardware or graphics path and communicates position and scale transforms to the compositor chain, enabling hole-punch and hardware video overlay positioning.
• Wayland Protocol Extensions: Optionally compiled-in extensions include wl_sb (shared buffer), zwp_linux_dmabuf_v1 (DMA-buf import), linux_explicit_synchronization_unstable_v1 (acquire/release fence synchronization), and wl_simple_shell for privileged surface management.
• Extensible Module System: Additional Wayland protocols or functionality can be added at runtime by loading external shared libraries that provide moduleInit and moduleTerm entry points, registered via WstCompositorAddModule.
• Repeater Mode: When supported by the platform's Wayland-EGL path, a repeating nested compositor forwards client surface buffers directly to the parent compositor without intermediate composition; otherwise Westeros falls back to nested composition with the GL renderer.
• Virtual Embedded Compositors: Multiple virtual embedded compositor instances can be created from a single master embedded compositor via WstCompositorCreateVirtualEmbedded, allowing independent sub-scene management within one process.

Design

Westeros is designed around a library model where the compositor runs inside the host process. The compositor context (WstContext) holds all shared state and runs a dedicated compositor thread that owns the Wayland display event loop, client connections, and frame generation. The public WstCompositor handle is the per-instance API object and decouples the calling thread from the compositor thread, with a 64-entry event queue (WstEvent) bridging input events from the application thread to the compositor thread. A recursive pthread mutex (ctx->mutex) serializes access to shared context state between the caller and the compositor thread.

The three compositor modes — normal, nested, and embedded — are controlled by flags set before WstCompositorStart is called. In nested mode, a WstNestedConnection is established on a separate thread to maintain the connection to the parent Wayland display, receiving output geometry, keyboard map, and VPC events from the parent and forwarding them into the local compositor event flow. In embedded mode, composition is triggered only when the hosting application calls WstCompositorComposeEmbedded, and both that call and WstCompositorStart must be issued from the same thread. Normal mode drives composition from a timer event source on the compositor thread at the configured frame rate.

Rendering is fully decoupled through the WstRenderer interface: the compositor calls renderer_init in the loaded module to populate a function table, then calls surfaceCreate, surfaceCommit, updateScene, and related methods for each frame. This separation means the compositor core has no dependency on any specific GPU API; EGL and GLES2 are engaged only when a GL-based renderer module is loaded. Buffer sharing between clients and the renderer is handled through wl_shm, wl_sb, zwp_linux_dmabuf_v1, or EGL Wayland buffer extensions, depending on which protocols are enabled at build time.

Northbound interaction with hosted clients is via the Wayland socket protocol: clients connect, bind globals, create surfaces, attach buffers, and commit. The hosting application also controls embedded instances through the C API, while southbound interaction is through the renderer module's function table.

For non-nested starts, the keyboard map is initialized from libxkbcommon using the evdev rule set and the us layout by default; nested instances receive the parent compositor's keymap.

graph TD
    subgraph WesterosProcess["Westeros Process"]
        subgraph PublicAPI["Public API Layer"]
            WstComp["WstCompositor API Handle"]
        end

        subgraph CoreContext["Compositor Context WstContext"]
            CompThread["Compositor Thread wstCompositorThread"]
            EventQ["Event Queue 64 entries"]
            SurfaceMap["Surface Map surfaceId to WstSurface"]
            Seat["WstSeat keyboard pointer touch"]
            Output["WstOutput geometry and mode"]
            ShellGlobals["Shell Globals wl_shell xdg_shell wl_simple_shell"]
        end

        subgraph RendMod["Renderer Module dlopen"]
            RendGL["libwesteros_render_gl or libwesteros_render_embedded"]
        end

        subgraph NConn["Nested Connection"]
            NCThread["Nested Connection Thread"]
        end
    end

    subgraph VendorLayer["Vendor Layer"]
        SOC["westeros-soc DRM EGL"]
    end

    WstComp -->|enqueue input events| EventQ
    EventQ -->|drain and dispatch| CompThread
    CompThread -->|surface commit and compose| RendGL
    NCThread -->|output keyboard VPC callbacks| CompThread
    RendGL -->|EGL GLES2 DMA-buf| SOC
    NCThread -->|nested wl events| CompThread

Threading Model

• Threading Architecture: Multi-threaded
• Main / Caller Thread: Invokes WstCompositorCreate, WstCompositorSet*, WstCompositorStart, and input injection APIs. Posts events to the per-compositor event queue.
• Worker Threads:
• Compositor thread (wstCompositorThread): Runs the wl_display event loop, accepts client connections, dispatches protocol requests, schedules repaints, drives frame composition at the configured frame rate, and manages surface lifecycle.
• Nested connection thread: Active in nested, repeater, or embedded VPC-bridge mode. Maintains the Wayland client connection to the parent compositor, receives output geometry, keyboard map, and VPC notifications, and posts them into the compositor context.
• Synchronization: A recursive pthread mutex (ctx->mutex) protects the compositor context and surface/client maps. A mutex and condition variable pair (ncStartedMutex, ncStartedCond) synchronizes the start of the nested connection thread with the compositor thread startup. The master embedded compositor uses a separate global mutex (g_mutexMasterEmbedded).
• Async / Event Dispatch: Input injection APIs append to the fixed 64-entry WstCompositor::eventQueue, indexed by eventIndex; wstCompositorProcessEvents drains the batch and resets the index. It dispatches each event type to the matching handler (wstProcessKeyEvent, wstProcessPointerMoveEvent, wstProcessTouchDownEvent, etc.).

Prerequisites and Dependencies

Platform and Integration Requirements

• Build Dependencies: wayland-client (≥1.6.0), wayland-server (≥1.6.0), wayland-egl, libxkbcommon (≥0.4), EGL, GLESv2, glib-2.0 (≥2.22.5), gstreamer-1.0 (≥1.0), virtual/westeros-soc (SOC render module), westeros-simplebuffer, westeros-simpleshell, wayland-native (for protocol scanner at build time). wayland-protocols is required when the explicit-sync PACKAGECONFIG is enabled; libdrm headers are required when incldbprotocol is enabled.
• Device Services / HAL: Vendor-specific rendering is provided by the virtual/westeros-soc recipe, resolved at build time to a platform renderer module. The module exports a renderer_init symbol and populates the WstRenderer function table covering renderTerm, updateScene, surfaceCreate, surfaceDestroy, surfaceCommit, surfaceSetVisible, surfaceGetVisible, surfaceSetGeometry, surfaceGetGeometry, surfaceSetOpacity, surfaceGetOpacity, surfaceSetZOrder, surfaceGetZOrder, surfaceSetCrop, and holePunch.
• Systemd Services: The westeros.service unit sources /etc/default/westeros-env and executes /usr/bin/westeros-init. The init script waits up to 60 seconds for XDG_RUNTIME_DIR to be mounted before launching the compositor.
• Configuration Files: Runtime configuration is supplied through /etc/default/westeros-env, sourced by the systemd service unit.
• Startup Order: RequiresMountsFor=/run in westeros.service; WantedBy=multi-user.target.

Component State Flow

Initialization to Active State

The compositor transitions through the following states during its lifecycle: Uninitialized (before WstCompositorCreate) → Configured (WstCompositorSet* calls establish display name, renderer module, frame rate, and mode flags) → Starting (WstCompositorStart spawns the compositor thread) → Ready (the compositor thread has created the Wayland display, seat, output, and shell globals; embedded mode initializes its renderer immediately after this signal in WstCompositorStart) → Active (the compositor thread runs the event loop, accepting client connections and generating frames) → Shutdown (WstCompositorStop signals the compositor thread to exit, renderer and seat resources are released).

sequenceDiagram
    participant App as Host Application
    participant Comp as WstCompositor API
    participant CThread as Compositor Thread
    participant Renderer as Renderer Module
    participant XKB as libxkbcommon

    App->>Comp: WstCompositorCreate()
    App->>Comp: WstCompositorSetRendererModule()
    App->>Comp: WstCompositorSetDisplayName()
    App->>Comp: WstCompositorSetFrameRate()
    App->>Comp: WstCompositorStart()
    Comp->>CThread: pthread_create wstCompositorThread
    CThread->>XKB: xkb_context_new and xkb_keymap_new_from_names
    XKB-->>CThread: keymap ready
    CThread->>Renderer: dlopen and renderer_init
    Renderer-->>CThread: WstRenderer function table populated
    CThread->>CThread: wl_display_create and register globals
    CThread->>CThread: wstSeatInit wstOutputInit wstShmInit
    CThread-->>Comp: compositorReady = true
    Comp-->>App: WstCompositorStart returns true

    loop Frame Loop
        CThread->>CThread: wl_display_flush_clients
        CThread->>Renderer: updateScene
    end

    App->>Comp: WstCompositorStop()
    CThread->>Renderer: renderTerm
    CThread->>CThread: wstSeatTerm wstOutputTerm
    CThread-->>Comp: thread exits

Runtime State Changes

State Change Triggers:

• Output Size Change: WstCompositorSetOutputSize or WstCompositorResolutionChangeEnd set outputSizeChanged flags; the compositor thread calls wstOutputChangeSize on its next iteration, updating all clients with a new wl_output.mode event.
• Nested Connection Loss: When the nested connection thread detects that the parent compositor has disconnected, it terminates the local Wayland display and invokes the configured termination callback; the compositor thread then exits its event loop and releases resources.
• First Frame Notification: During embedded composition, after a non-hidden scene containing a client's committed buffer is composed, clientStatusCB is invoked with WstClient_firstFrame once for that client PID.

Context Switching Scenarios:

• When operating as a nested compositor, output geometry or keyboard map changes from the parent compositor propagate into the local compositor context and are forwarded to all connected clients.
• In embedded mode, the host application controls composition timing by calling WstCompositorComposeEmbedded directly.

Call Flows

Initialization Call Flow

sequenceDiagram
    participant App as Host Application
    participant API as WstCompositor API
    participant CThread as Compositor Thread
    participant Renderer as Renderer Module
    participant WlDisplay as wl_display

    App->>API: WstCompositorCreate()
    App->>API: WstCompositorSet display renderer framerate mode
    App->>API: WstCompositorStart()
    API->>CThread: pthread_create
    CThread->>WlDisplay: wl_display_create()
    CThread->>WlDisplay: register globals wl_compositor wl_shm wl_seat wl_output xdg_shell wl_simple_shell vpc
    CThread->>Renderer: dlopen rendererModule and renderer_init
    Renderer-->>CThread: WstRenderer function table
    CThread->>CThread: wstSeatInit wstOutputInit wstShmInit
    CThread-->>API: compositorReady = true
    API-->>App: WstCompositorStart returns true

Request Processing Call Flow

Surface buffer rendering is the primary runtime operation. A Wayland client attaches a buffer to its surface and issues a commit. The compositor thread receives the commit, passes the buffer to the renderer module for upload or import, schedules a repaint, and on the next frame tick calls the renderer's updateScene to produce the composited output.

sequenceDiagram
    participant WlClient as Wayland Client
    participant CThread as Compositor Thread
    participant Renderer as Renderer Module
    participant SOC as Vendor SOC Layer

    WlClient->>CThread: wl_surface.attach buffer
    WlClient->>CThread: wl_surface.commit
    CThread->>CThread: wstISurfaceCommit update WstSurface state
    CThread->>Renderer: surfaceCommit surface bufferResource
    Renderer->>SOC: import or upload buffer via EGL or DMA-buf
    SOC-->>Renderer: texture or buffer handle
    CThread->>CThread: wstCompositorScheduleRepaint
    Note over CThread: next frame tick
    CThread->>Renderer: updateScene
    Renderer->>SOC: draw surfaces via GLES2 or HW overlay
    CThread->>WlClient: frame callback done

Internal Modules

Component Interactions

Westeros operates as a self-contained Wayland display server. Northbound communication is entirely via the Wayland socket protocol; southbound communication is via the renderer module's function table.

Interaction Matrix

Events Published

IPC Flow Patterns

Primary Surface Commit Flow:

Clients communicate with Westeros over the Wayland socket. Westeros validates the buffer resource type (shm, EGL Wayland buffer, DMA-buf, or simple-buffer) at commit time and dispatches to the renderer for import. Buffer sharing is mediated through the Wayland shm pool mechanism and the enabled buffer protocol extensions.

sequenceDiagram
    participant Client as Wayland Client
    participant WlServer as wl_display Westeros
    participant Comp as Compositor Thread
    participant Renderer as Renderer Module

    Client->>WlServer: wl_surface.attach buffer
    Client->>WlServer: wl_surface.commit
    WlServer->>Comp: wstISurfaceCommit dispatch
    Comp->>Renderer: surfaceCommit surface bufferResource
    Renderer-->>Comp: buffer imported
    Comp-->>WlServer: schedule repaint
    WlServer-->>Client: frame callback on next vsync

VPC Video Path Control Flow:

sequenceDiagram
    participant VideoClient as Video Client
    participant Comp as Compositor Thread
    participant ParentComp as Parent Compositor nested

    VideoClient->>Comp: vpc_surface.set_geometry x y w h
    Comp->>Comp: update WstVpcSurface transform
    Comp->>ParentComp: forward vpc xform via nested connection
    ParentComp-->>Comp: vpc video_path_change event
    Comp->>VideoClient: vpc_surface.video_path_change notification

Implementation Details

Major HAL APIs Integration

The HAL boundary for Westeros is the renderer module interface. All functions below are called through the WstRenderer function pointer table populated by the renderer module's renderer_init entry point.

Key Implementation Logic

• State / Lifecycle Management: All compositor state is held in WstContext (heap-allocated, one per compositor instance). WstCompositorCreate allocates and zero-initialises both WstContext and WstCompositor, sets default frame rate (60 fps), default output size (1280×720), and default keymap (evdev/pc105/us). WstCompositorStart spawns the compositor thread; WstCompositorStop sets ctx->running = false and joins the thread.
• Core lifecycle: westeros-compositor.cpp — WstCompositorCreate, WstCompositorStart, WstCompositorStop, WstCompositorDestroy

• Compositor thread body: westeros-compositor.cpp — wstCompositorThread

• Event Processing: Input events injected by the host application are written into WstCompositor::eventQueue[WST_EVENT_QUEUE_SIZE] (64 entries, a fixed batch indexed by eventIndex). The compositor thread calls wstCompositorProcessEvents on each loop iteration, draining the queue and dispatching each event type to the matching handler (wstProcessKeyEvent, wstProcessPointerMoveEvent, wstProcessTouchDownEvent, etc.). Each handler locates the appropriate focused surface via WstKeyboard::focus, WstPointer::focus, or WstTouch::focus and sends the corresponding Wayland protocol event to the client's resource list.

• Error Handling Strategy: API functions return bool (true on success). On failure, a descriptive string is stored in WstCompositor::lastErrorDetail and retrieved with WstCompositorGetLastErrorDetail. Renderer dlopen and renderer_init failures abort WstCompositorStart. Nested connection loss sets compositorAborted, which terminates the compositor thread cleanly.

• Logging & Diagnostics: The internal wstLog(level, fmt, ...) function writes to stderr. Verbosity is controlled at startup by the WESTEROS_DEBUG environment variable (integer 0–6, default 3). Log prefixes are Westeros Fatal (0), Westeros Error (0), Westeros Warning (1), Westeros Info (2), Westeros Debug (3), and Westeros Trace (4–6).

Configuration

Key Configuration Parameters

Runtime Configuration

The westeros-init script selects the renderer module before launching the compositor. Its RENDERER assignment overrides any value from /etc/default/westeros-env, so change the init script or invoke westeros directly when selecting a renderer.

To apply supported environment-file changes:

systemctl restart westeros

The frame rate and display name can also be passed on the command line when invoking the westeros binary directly:

westeros --renderer /usr/lib/libwesteros_render_gl.so.0 --framerate 60 --display wayland-0