rlvgl 0.2.1

rlvgl is a modular, idiomatic Rust reimplementation of LVGL (Light and Versatile Graphics Library).

rlvgl preserves the widget-based UI paradigm of LVGL while eliminating unsafe C-style memory management and global state. This library is structured to support no_std environments, embedded targets (e.g., STM32H7), and simulator backends for rapid prototyping.

The C version of LVGL is included as a git submodule for reference and test vector extraction, but not linked or compiled into this library.

Goals

Package: rlvgl

• Preserve LVGL architecture and layout system
• Replace C memory handling with idiomatic Rust ownership
• Support embedded display flush/input via embedded-hal
• Enable widget hierarchy, styles, and events using Rust traits
• Use existing Rust crates where possible (e.g., embedded-graphics, heapless, tinybmp)

Features

• no_std + allocator support with simulator-friendly std features
• Modular workspace crates for core widgets, platform backends, UI helpers, API bindings, and i18n
• rlvgl-creator support for asset preparation, vendor database browsing, and STM32 BSP generation from CubeMX .ioc files
• Application Schema (rlvgl-app/v0) — declarative app.yaml manifest plus rlvgl-creator app from-yaml orchestrator emit a buildable Cargo crate from one source of truth (BSP, assets, state machine, i18n, theme, layouts, per-prong main glue). See docs/app-schema/.
• Vendor chip database crates and generated STM BSP crates for board-aware tooling
• Flagship STM32H747I-DISCO demo covering DSI display, touch, SDRAM, SD/MMC, audio, and DMA2D-assisted rendering
• Motion, compositor, dirty-region, and accelerated blitting primitives for richer embedded UIs
• Pluggable display and input backends for both embedded targets and host simulation
• Optional Lottie support for dynamic playback and offline asset conversion workflows

Project Structure

• core – Widget base trait, layout, event dispatch
• widgets – Rust-native reimplementations of LVGL widgets
• platform – Display/input traits and HAL adapters
• ui – Higher-level UI components
• examples/apps/demo – Packaged demo application crate
• api – Shared ABI types for bindings and coprocessor integrations
• i18n – Compile-time translations with runtime-selectable locale blobs
• chipdb – Vendor chip databases used by creator and BSP generation
• chips/stm/bsps – Generated STM32 BSP modules
• rlvgl-creator – Asset and BSP workflows for command-line and UI tooling
• examples – Sample applications and board demos
• docs – Project documentation and task lists
• docs/disco-tutorial – Progressive, chapter-by-chapter guide to building the STM32H747I-DISCO demo from scratch
• docs/disco-platform-guide – Volume II: bare-metal STM32H747I-DISCO platform bring-up, SVD/PAC limits, AXI holdoff, and the star crawl in full detail
• docs/disco-test-and-debug – Volume III: how to test and debug across the host simulator, UEFI/QEMU, and hardware, including playit automation and VS Code + probe-rs + GDB
• docs/disco-freertos-guide – Volume IV: FreeRTOS preemptive tasks, interrupt-driven I2C4 touch, single-buffer rendering, joystick navigation
• docs/disco-zephyr-guide – Volume V: Zephyr C+Rust hybrid, video mode vs adapted command mode, DMA2D pipeline, CSleep/LPENR fix
• lvgl – upstream C library (vendored as a git submodule under lvgl/; not mirrored on the site)

Building Binary Targets

The workspace currently ships six user-facing binaries. Their package names, required targets, and applicable feature flags differ enough that it is best to treat them individually instead of relying on cargo build --workspace. Every binary has a top-level make target — run make help to see them all, or make build-all-bins to build every binary in one command.

Host tools and simulators

Binary	Package	Make target	Cargo command
rlvgl-creator	rlvgl	make build-creator	cargo build -p rlvgl --bin rlvgl-creator --features creator
rlvgl-sim	rlvgl-example-sim	make build-sim	cargo build -p rlvgl-example-sim --bin rlvgl-sim --features png,jpeg,gif,qrcode,fontdue
rlvgl-disco-sim	rlvgl-example-disco-sim	make build-disco-sim	cargo build -p rlvgl-example-disco-sim --bin rlvgl-disco-sim
rlvgl-uefi-disco	rlvgl-example-uefi-disco	make build-uefi-disco	cargo build --manifest-path examples/uefi-disco/Cargo.toml --target aarch64-unknown-uefi --bin rlvgl-uefi-disco

Notes: rlvgl-creator is gated behind the creator feature; add creator_ui for the desktop UI. rlvgl-sim accepts --no-default-features for a lean build. rlvgl-uefi-disco is intentionally excluded from the workspace.

STM32H747I-DISCO firmware

The firmware package is rlvgl-example-disco and it produces two binaries from the same crate:

Binary	Required target	Required feature	Make target	Cargo command
rlvgl-stm32h747i-disco	thumbv7em-none-eabihf	cm7	make build-disco	RUSTFLAGS="-C target-cpu=cortex-m7" cargo build --target thumbv7em-none-eabihf -p rlvgl-example-disco --bin rlvgl-stm32h747i-disco --features cm7,splash,desktop,dma2d,cpu_stats,qspi_flash,sd_storage,audio
rlvgl-stm32h747i-disco-cm4	thumbv7em-none-eabihf	cm4	make build-disco-cm4	RUSTFLAGS="-C target-cpu=cortex-m7" cargo build --target thumbv7em-none-eabihf -p rlvgl-example-disco --bin rlvgl-stm32h747i-disco-cm4 --features cm4

make build-disco{,-release} also runs rust-objcopy to emit .hex and .bin artifacts beside the ELF.

Playit test runners

Every binary that supports the playit automation protocol has a matching make target that builds it (where applicable) and runs the playit test suite against it:

Target	Make target	Description
Disco-demo controller (no_std)	make test-disco-demo	cargo test -p rlvgl-app-disco-demo — 26 unit tests
Disco simulator (host)	make test-disco-sim	Builds rlvgl-disco-sim and runs the Rust + Node.js suites over a TCP playit socket
UEFI disco (QEMU)	make test-uefi-disco	Builds rlvgl-uefi-disco, boots it headless under QEMU, and runs the Node.js suite over the pl011 UART
STM32H747I-DISCO hardware	make test-stm32h747i-disco	Bridges /dev/cu.usbmodem* (ST-Link VCP) to TCP and runs the Node.js suite against live firmware
All of the above	make test-playit-all	Runs every suite in sequence

The hardware runner depends on flashing make build-disco first; the UEFI runner depends on qemu-system-aarch64 plus EDK2 firmware (brew install qemu on macOS provides both). See playit/README.md for the full wire protocol.

Only the STM32H747I-DISCO package understands the following board-specific feature flags: splash, desktop, dma2d, cpu_stats, audio, qspi_flash, sd_storage, c_hal, c_hal_cm4, pac_sdram_init, sdram_ramtest, hal_sdram, backlight_pwm, semihosting, and bsp_log. They are all opt-in; default = [].

Where to find feature details

Every crate in the workspace now has an OPTIONS.md file next to its Cargo.toml. Start with the umbrella crate's OPTIONS.md, then use the crate-local file for the package you are building:

• examples/sim/OPTIONS.md
• examples/disco-sim/OPTIONS.md
• examples/stm32h747i-disco/OPTIONS.md
• examples/uefi-disco/OPTIONS.md
• src/bin/creator/README.md for CLI and UI workflow details

What's New in 0.1.9

• rlvgl-creator now covers vendor import, board IR generation, and Rust BSP rendering with bundled alternate-function databases.
• STM32H747I-DISCO moved from bring-up into a flagship demo path with dual-core startup, DSI display, touch, storage, audio, and richer UI flows.
• The rendering stack gained EventWindow, compositor/save-under behavior, motion helpers, DMA2D acceleration, and display-pipeline fixes for smoother presentation.
• The workspace now includes first-class i18n, API, chip database, and generated BSP crates alongside the core UI crates.

Vendor chip databases

Vendor-specific board definitions live in the chipdb/ crates. The tools/gen_pins.py helper aggregates raw vendor inputs into JSON blobs, while tools/build_vendor.sh orchestrates generation and stamps license files. When building a vendor crate, set RLVGL_CHIP_SRC to the directory containing these JSON files so the build script can embed them via include_bytes!.

STM32CubeMX BSP generation 🆕

rlvgl-creator 🆕 converts STM32 CubeMX .ioc projects into board support stubs. Generated modules ship in rlvgl-bsps-stm 🆕. The older board overlay support remains but is deprecated.

BSP Generator (rlvgl-creator 🆕)

rlvgl-creator 🆕 offers a two-stage pipeline for board support packages:

1. Import vendor project files (e.g., STM32CubeMX .ioc, NXP .mex, RP2040 YAML). Each adapter mines the vendor data and emits a small, vendor-neutral YAML IR describing clocks, pins, DMA and peripherals.
2. Generate Rust initialization code by rendering MiniJinja templates against the IR. Users may choose from built-in template packs or provide their own.

The STM32CubeMX adapter also parses PLL multipliers and peripheral kernel clock selections so that clock setup can be generated alongside pin configuration.

No per-chip tables are maintained. Class-level rules are reused across instances and vendors. Alternate functions are derived from embedded vendor databases generated from the official XML sources; no external JSON is required at generation time. Reserved SWD pins (PA13, PA14) are rejected unless explicitly allowed.

Typical flow:

rlvgl-creator platform import --vendor st --input board.ioc --out board.yaml
rlvgl-creator platform gen --spec board.yaml --templates templates/stm32h7 \
  --out src/generated.rs

Alternate-function numbers are computed from the embedded database at runtime by rlvgl-creator, so there is no need to generate or pass a JSON file.

To package vendor chip databases for testing or publishing, run:

tools/build_vendor.sh
RLVGL_CHIP_SRC=chipdb/rlvgl-chips-stm/generated cargo build -p rlvgl-chips-stm

For a full asset workflow overview see the rlvgl-creator 🆕 README. Command details live in docs/creator/CLI.md.

IR schema

The import step emits a concise YAML specification describing the board:

mcu: STM32H747XIHx
package: LQFP176
power: { supply: smps, vos: scale1 }
clocks:
  sources: { hse_hz: 25000000 }
  pll:
    pll1: { m: 5, n: 400, p: 2, q: 4, r: 2 }
  kernels: { usart1: pclk2 }
pinctrl:
  - group: usart1-default
    signals:
      - { pin: PA9,  func: USART1_TX, af: 7, pull: none, speed: veryhigh }
      - { pin: PA10, func: USART1_RX, af: 7, pull: up,   speed: veryhigh }
peripherals:
  usart1:
    class: serial
    params: { baud: 115200, parity: none, stop_bits: 1 }
    pinctrl: [ usart1-default ]
reserved_pins: [ PA13, PA14 ]

Field summary:

• mcu, package – identifiers from the vendor project.
• power – supply configuration; values map directly to HAL calls.
• clocks – input frequencies (sources), PLL multipliers (pll) and per‑peripheral kernel selections (kernels).
• pinctrl – groups of pins with their functions, alternate functions, pulls and speeds.
• peripherals – map of peripheral instances keyed by name (usart1), each with a class (e.g. serial) and optional params.
• dma, interrupts – optional arrays describing DMA requests and IRQ priorities.
• reserved_pins – pins that must not be reconfigured (e.g. SWD).

Template helpers

MiniJinja templates can use the following filters:

• pin_var – convert a pin like PA9 into the variable name pa9.
• periph_num – extract trailing digits from a peripheral name (usart12 → 12).
• af_alt – render an alternate-function number for into_alternate::<AF>() (7 → <7>).

Users may supply custom templates by pointing --templates at any directory; the filters above are always available.

See docs/TODO-CREATOR-BSP.md for remaining work.

Status

As-built. See docs for component-by-component progress and outstanding tasks.

v0.1.9 shifts rlvgl from a core-library-first workspace toward a fuller embedded UI product stack. The main areas of growth are the creator/BSP pipeline, the STM32H747I-DISCO showcase target, and the runtime pieces needed for more polished embedded applications.

Quick Example

use rlvgl_core::widget::Rect;
use rlvgl_widgets::label::Label;

fn main() {
    let mut label = Label::new(
        "hello",
        Rect {
            x: 0,
            y: 0,
            width: 100,
            height: 20,
        },
    );
    label.style.bg_color = rlvgl_core::widget::Color(0, 0, 255, 255);
    // Rendering would use a DisplayDriver implementation.
}

Testing

Run host-based tests with the default toolchain:

cargo test --workspace

Cross-target tests (e.g., thumbv7em-none-eabihf) require a linker. Cargo defaults to arm-none-eabi-gcc, but you can avoid installing GCC by adding the rust-lld component and configuring:

rustup component add rust-lld

[target.thumbv7em-none-eabihf]
linker = "rust-lld"

See docs/CROSS-TESTING.md for troubleshooting tips.

Coverage

LLVM coverage instrumentation is configured via .cargo/config.toml and the coverage target in the Makefile. Run make coverage to execute the tests with instrumentation and generate an HTML report under ./coverage/.

rlvgl crate

• The link above is for the top crate which bundles the others and includes the simulator.
• rlvgl-core crate
• rlvgl-widgets crate
• rlvgl-platform crate
• rlvgl-ui crate
• rlvgl-i18n crate

Run the following Cargo command in your project directory:

cargo add rlvgl

Or add the following line to your Cargo.toml:

rlvgl = "0.1.9"

Community

• Code of Conduct
• Contributor notes

Dockerhub

The build image used by the Github worflow for this repo is publiclly available on Dockerhub.

docker pull iraa/rlvgl:latest

Consult the Dockerfile for details on the build environment.

Other useful helper scripts may be found in /scripts.

License

rlvgl is licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE for more details. Third-party license notices are summarized in NOTICES.md.

More Information

For more information, visit softoboros.com.