Microchip Graphics Suite (MGS) Linux® User Guide
Tool to Ease Graphical User Interface (GUI) Development
Microchip Graphics Suite (MGS) Linux® (also known as Ensemble Graphics Toolkit (EGT)) offers these key benefits to simplify the development of your Linux-based GUI:
- Enables modern design flow
- Features modern C++14 design and simplicity, based on mature Linux graphical libraries such as Cairo for 2D vector graphics, and utilizes DRM/KMS and X11 backends.
- Imports SVG or HTML5/CSS3 content from your favorite graphical design tools
- Rapid iterations
- Supports graphical development and simulation on a PC or directly on the target processor, allowing the software developer and the graphics designer to develop and review the GUI quickly and iteratively.
- Multimedia support
- Supports video playback, raster images, and vector graphics on all MPUs through mature open-source programs such as GStreamer and FFmpeg.
- Supports standard video and image formats and, when available, on-chip acceleration, which can be used to optimize performance.
- Widgets and animations
- Provides a rich and extensible default widget set for customizing the look and feel of embedded touchscreens.
- Offers themeable widget drawing, colors, and fonts with built-in support for basic animations and effects.
- Integrates easily with real physics libraries such as Box2D.
- MGS Linux Composer (MGC)
- Create a user interface without writing code, then export an XML file describing the User Interface (UI) to be imported by the MGS Linux application to create the user interface automatically.
Getting Started
There is a variety of documentation, sample applications, and code examples available in the MGS Linux Repository to help you get started quickly.
The MGS Linux programmer’s manual may be used as an Application Programming Interface (API) reference or for a deep dive into MGS Linux architecture, configuration, and debugging.
You can also visit the Linux4SAM website for additional information about using EGT with our SAM MPUs or go to our MGS Linux Forum to get answers to your questions from the user community. Refer to the “Getting Started” section of the MGS Linux Programmer’s Manual for complete instructions.
MGS Linux Composer (MGC)
Microchip Graphics Composer (MGC) streamlines UI development by letting you design interfaces visually — simply place graphics objects and widgets on a canvas. The tool exports your design as an XML file, serializing all UI elements and their properties. When imported in the MGS Linux application, this XML recreates your designed views on screen, allowing you to add event interactions and custom logic to animate this view with controls.
The composer is intrinsically tied to specific versions of MGS Linux (EGT). This synchronization allows users to leverage up-to-date properties and widget behaviors as defined by the underlying library. To maintain compatibility and functionality, the MGC version must always align with its corresponding MGS Linux (EGT) version, as highlighted in the table below.
| MGS Linux (EGT) Version | Microchip Graphics Composer (MGC) Version | Download Links |
|---|---|---|
| 1.4 | 1.0.0 | |
| 1.6 | 1.1.0 | |
| 1.10 | 1.2.0 |