libdrmtap-sys

Raw FFI bindings for libdrmtap — a C library for capturing Linux screen framebuffers via DRM/KMS.

What is libdrmtap?

libdrmtap captures screen contents at the kernel level using DRM/KMS APIs. Unlike PipeWire/portal-based capture, it works:

• At the login screen (GDM, SDDM, LightDM)
• Without user interaction (no "Select screen to share" prompt)
• On Wayland (bypasses the compositor security model)
• Headless (no display server needed)

⚠️ Testing Status

This crate has been tested on virtio_gpu (QEMU/Parallels VMs) only.

Intel (i915/xe), AMD (amdgpu), and Nvidia (nvidia-drm) GPU backends are implemented but not yet validated on real hardware. The EGL-based universal detiling backend compiles and is ready for testing.

If you test on real hardware, please report results via GitHub Issues.

Requirements

• Linux with DRM/KMS support
• libdrmtap installed (meson install -C build)
• pkg-config to locate the library

Usage

This is a -sys crate with raw FFI bindings. For a safe wrapper, use libdrmtap.

use libdrmtap_sys::*;
use std::ptr;

unsafe {
    let ctx = drmtap_open(ptr::null());
    if !ctx.is_null() {
        let driver = drmtap_gpu_driver(ctx);
        // ... capture frames ...
        drmtap_close(ctx);
    }
}

License

MIT