yaft-drm

yaft-drm is a DRM/KMS fork of yaft, the compact framebuffer terminal. It keeps the console-terminal idea alive on modern Linux systems where the legacy /dev/fb0 device has been removed.

The project replaces the fbdev backend with DRM dumb buffers and adds the pieces expected from a practical server-console terminal: Sixel graphics, mouse reporting, adaptive cursor rendering, command launch, resolution selection, login-shell fallback, and clean console recovery.

Why This Exists

Fedora 43, RHEL 10, and other modern Linux platforms are moving away from the legacy framebuffer character device. That breaks terminal emulators built directly on /dev/fb0, even though server operators still need a capable terminal on physical, virtual, and remote-management consoles.

yaft-drm moves that terminal surface to DRM/KMS so a machine can still offer a full-screen console experience without X11, Wayland, or a desktop stack.

What It Enables

Console need	yaft-drm behavior
Modern display path	Uses `/dev/dri/cardN` and DRM dumb buffers instead of `/dev/fb0`.
Remote-management mouse	Supports evdev absolute input for iDRAC, iLO, IPMI, Pi-KVM, QEMU, and VMware consoles.
Graphical terminal apps	Renders Sixel graphics for tools such as brow6el.
tmux administration	Handles xterm SGR mouse reporting, powerline glyphs, status tabs, and clean DA behavior.
Login-shell deployment	Falls back to `/bin/bash --login` outside a real VT when configured as a user shell.
Console recovery	Restores signal, CRTC, and VT state on abnormal exit or normal shutdown.

Start Here

For Fedora 43 or RHEL 10 and newer, use the COPR package path. It installs the DRM terminal, the legacy fbdev build, the shell-init helper, and the man page.

sudo dnf copr enable greg-at-redhat/brow6el
sudo dnf install yaft

Run the terminal directly, select a resolution, or launch straight into an application:

yaft-drm
yaft-drm --res 1920x1080
yaft-drm -c "brow6el https://example.com"
yaft-drm -c "tmux new -s Console"

Use Cases

Terminal Browser on the Console

Run a Chromium-based terminal browser with Sixel graphics directly on a server console, with no desktop session required.

Headless Server Administration

Use a full terminal with mouse support and Nerd Font glyph rendering over BMC/KVM, IPMI, Pi-KVM, Cockpit noVNC, or a VM console.

yaft-drm can also act as a console kiosk launcher. Because -c executes a command directly instead of starting an interactive shell first, a VT console can boot straight into a dedicated application such as tmux, brow6el, a status dashboard, or another fixed-purpose terminal UI.

yaft-drm -c "tmux new -s Console"
yaft-drm -c "brow6el https://dashboard.example.com"

Use yaft-drm as a user login shell on VT consoles while preserving normal SSH behavior through automatic bash fallback.

Installation

Fedora 43 / RHEL 10+ COPR

sudo dnf copr enable greg-at-redhat/brow6el
sudo dnf install yaft

The package provides yaft-drm for DRM/KMS systems and yaft for kernels that still expose /dev/fb0.

Build from Source

sudo dnf install gcc make ncurses libdrm-devel
make yaft-drm
sudo install -m755 yaft-drm /usr/local/bin/yaft-drm

sudo usermod -aG video,input username
sudo example-shell-init.sh --yaft-login
sudo chsh username -s /usr/bin/yaft-drm

When fallback=true is configured, SSH, tmux, scp, rsync, and other non-VT sessions continue into bash instead of trying to take over DRM.

Validated Console Targets

Platform	Display path	Mouse path	Status
Dell PowerEdge iDRAC 8	Matrox G200eR2	Avocent USB absolute	Validated
Pi-KVM	USB HDMI capture	Pi-KVM HID absolute	Validated
JetKVM	USB HDMI capture	JetKVM HID absolute	Validated
KVM/QEMU	QXL / Virtio VGA	QEMU USB Tablet / VMware VMMouse	Validated