- There's now flutterpi tool to make building the app easier: https://pub.dev/packages/flutterpi_tool
- Currently only supported on linux at the moment.
- Requires flutter SDK > 3.10.5
- Engine binaries no longer need to be installed on the target system.
- See updated Building flutter-pi on the Raspberry Pi and Building the App sections below.
- Added a section for useful dart packages, See Useful Dart Packages
- The new latest flutter gallery commit for flutter 3.10 is
d77920b4ced4a105ad35659fbe3958800d418fb9
- The gstreamer video player now supports creating players from a raw gstreamer pipeline.
- The deprecated
omxplayer
-based video player has been removed.
A light-weight Flutter Engine Embedder for Raspberry Pi. Inspired by https://github.com/chinmaygarde/flutter_from_scratch. Flutter-pi also runs without X11, so you don't need to boot into Raspbian Desktop & have X11 and LXDE load up; just boot into the command-line.
You can now theoretically run every flutter app you want using flutter-pi, including apps using packages & plugins, just that you'd have to build the platform side of the plugins you'd like to use yourself.
The difference between packages and plugins is that packages don't include any native code, they are just pure Dart. Plugins (like the shared_preferences plugin) include platform-specific code.
Although flutter-pi is only tested on a Rasberry Pi 4 2GB, it should work fine on other linux platforms, with the following conditions:
- support for hardware 3D acceleration. more precisely support for kernel-modesetting (KMS) and the direct rendering infrastructure (DRI)
- CPU architecture is one of ARMv7, ARMv8, x86 or x86 64bit.
This means flutter-pi won't work on a Pi Zero (only the first one) or Pi 1.
Known working boards:
- Pi 2, 3 and 4 (even the 512MB models)
- Pi Zero 2 (W)
If you encounter issues running flutter-pi on any of the supported platforms listed above, please report them to me and I'll fix them.
- Building flutter-pi on the Raspberry Pi
1.1 Dependencies
1.2 Compiling - Running your App on the Raspberry Pi
2.1 Configuring your Raspberry Pi
2.2 Building the App
2.3 Running your App with flutter-pi
2.4 gstreamer video player - Performance
3.1 Graphics Performance
3.2 Touchscreen latency - Useful Dart Packages
- Discord
- If you want to update flutter-pi, you check out the latest commit using
git pull && git checkout origin/master
and continue with compiling, step 2.
-
Install the engine-binaries(not required anymore, except when using the old method to build the app bundle, see below)Instructions
-
Follow the instructions in the flutter-engine-binaries-for-arm repo..
More Info
flutter-pi needs flutters
icudtl.dat
andlibflutter_engine.so.{debug,profile,release}
at runtime, depending on the runtime mode used. You actually have two options here:- you build the engine yourself. takes a lot of time, and it most probably won't work on the first try. But once you have it set up, you have unlimited freedom on which engine version you want to use. You can find some rough guidelines here.
- you can use the pre-built engine binaries I am providing in the flutter-engine-binaries-for-arm repo.. I will only provide binaries for some engine versions though (most likely the stable ones).
-
-
Install cmake, graphics, system libraries and fonts:
$ sudo apt install cmake libgl1-mesa-dev libgles2-mesa-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libdrm-dev libgbm-dev ttf-mscorefonts-installer fontconfig libsystemd-dev libinput-dev libudev-dev libxkbcommon-dev
If you want to use the gstreamer video player, install these too:
$ sudo apt install libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-dev gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-libav gstreamer1.0-alsa
More Info
- flutter-pi needs the mesa OpenGL ES and EGL implementation and libdrm & libgbm. It may work with non-mesa implementations too, but that's untested.
- The flutter engine depends on the Arial font. Since that doesn't come included with Raspbian, you need to install it.
libsystemd
is not systemd, it's just an utility library. It provides the event loop and dbus support for flutter-pi.libinput-dev
,libudev-dev
andlibxkbcommon-dev
are needed for (touch, mouse, raw keyboard and text) input support.libudev-dev
is required, but actual udev is not. Flutter-pi will just open allevent
devices inside/dev/input
(unless overwritten using-i
) if udev is not present.gpiod
andlibgpiod-dev
where required in the past, but aren't anymore since theflutter_gpiod
plugin will directly access the kernel interface.
-
Update the system fonts.
sudo fc-cache
- Clone flutter-pi and cd into the cloned directory:
git clone https://github.com/ardera/flutter-pi cd flutter-pi
- Compile:
mkdir build && cd build cmake .. make -j`nproc`
- Install:
sudo make install
-
Open raspi-config:
sudo raspi-config
-
Switch to console mode:
System Options -> Boot / Auto Login
and selectConsole
orConsole (Autologin)
. -
You can skip this if you're on Raspberry Pi 4 with Raspbian Bullseye
Enable the V3D graphics driver:
Advanced Options -> GL Driver -> GL (Fake KMS)
-
Configure the GPU memory
Performance Options -> GPU Memory
and enter64
. -
Leave
raspi-config
. -
Give the
pi
permission to use 3D acceleration. (NOTE: potential security hazard. If you don't want to do this, launchflutter-pi
usingsudo
instead.)usermod -a -G render pi
-
Finish and reboot.
More information
- flutter-pi requires that no other process, like a X11- or wayland-server, is using the video output. So to disable the desktop environment, we boot into console instead.
- The old broadcom-proprietary GL driver was bugged and not working with flutter, so we have to use the Fake KMS driver.
- Actually, you can also configure 16MB of GPU memory if you want to. 64MB are needed when you want to use the
omxplayer_video_player
plugin. pi
isn't allowed to directly access the GPU because IIRC this has some privilege escalation bugs. Raspberry Pi has quite a lot of system-critical, not graphics-related stuff running on the GPU. I read somewhere it's easily possible to gain control of the GPU by writing malicious shaders. From there you can gain control of the CPU and thus the linux kernel. So basically thepi
user could escalate privileges and becomeroot
just by directly accessing the GPU. But maybe this has already been fixed, I'm not sure.
The app must be built on your development machine. Note that you can't use a Raspberry Pi as your development machine.
One-time setup:
- Make sure you've installed the flutter SDK. Only flutter SDK >= 3.10.5 is supported for the new method at the moment.
- Install the flutterpi_tool:
Run
flutter pub global activate flutterpi_tool
(One time only) - If running
flutterpi_tool
directly doesn't work, follow https://dart.dev/tools/pub/cmd/pub-global#running-a-script-from-your-path to add the dart global bin directory to your path.
Alternatively, you can launch the tool via:flutter pub global run flutterpi_tool ...
Building the app bundle:
- Open terminal or commandline and
cd
into your app directory. - Run
flutterpi_tool build
to build the app.- This will build the app for ARM 32-bit debug mode.
flutterpi_tool build --help
gives more usage information.- For example, to build for 64-bit ARM, release mode, with a Raspberry Pi 4 tuned engine, use:
flutterpi_tool build --arch=arm64 --cpu=pi4 --release
- Deploy the bundle to the Raspberry Pi using
rsync
orscp
:- Using
rsync
(available on linux and macOS or on Windows when using WSL)rsync -a --info=progress2 ./build/flutter_assets/ pi@raspberrypi:/home/pi/my_apps_flutter_assets
- Using
scp
(available on linux, macOS and Windows)scp -r ./build/flutter_assets/ pi@raspberrypi:/home/pi/my_apps_flutter_assets
- Using
Example:
- We'll build the asset bundle for
flutter_gallery
and deploy it usingrsync
to a Raspberry Pi 4 in this example.
git clone https://github.com/flutter/gallery.git flutter_gallery
cd flutter_gallery
git checkout d77920b4ced4a105ad35659fbe3958800d418fb9
flutter pub get
flutterpi_tool build --release --cpu=pi4
rsync -a ./build/flutter_assets/ pi@raspberrypi:/home/pi/flutter_gallery/
-
On Raspberry Pi, run
sudo apt-get install xdg-user-dirs
to install the runtime requirement of flutter_gallery. (otherwise it may throw exception) -
Done. You can now run this app in release mode using
flutter-pi --release /home/pi/flutter_gallery
.
Instructions
-
Make sure you've installed the flutter SDK. You must use a flutter SDK that's compatible to the installed engine binaries.
- for the flutter SDK, use flutter stable and keep it up to date.
- always use the latest available engine binaries
If you encounter error messages like
Invalid kernel binary format version
,Invalid SDK hash
orInvalid engine hash
:- Make sure your flutter SDK is on
stable
and up to date and your engine binaries are up to date. - If you made sure that's the case and the error still happens, create a new issue.
-
Open terminal or commandline and
cd
into your app directory. -
flutter build bundle
-
Deploy the asset bundle to the Raspberry Pi using
rsync
orscp
.- Using
rsync
(available on linux and macOS or on Windows when using WSL)rsync -a --info=progress2 ./build/flutter_assets/ pi@raspberrypi:/home/pi/my_apps_flutter_assets
- Using
scp
(available on linux, macOS and Windows)scp -r ./build/flutter_assets/ pi@raspberrypi:/home/pi/my_apps_flutter_assets
- Using
- We'll build the asset bundle for
flutter_gallery
and deploy it usingrsync
in this example.
git clone https://github.com/flutter/gallery.git flutter_gallery
cd flutter_gallery
git checkout d77920b4ced4a105ad35659fbe3958800d418fb9
flutter build bundle
rsync -a ./build/flutter_assets/ pi@raspberrypi:/home/pi/flutter_gallery/
- Done. You can now run this app in debug-mode using
flutter-pi /home/pi/flutter_gallery
.
More information
- flutter_gallery is developed against flutter master.
d77920b4ced4a105ad35659fbe3958800d418fb9
is currently the latest flutter gallery commit working with flutter stable.
- This is done entirely on your development machine as well.
- Find out the path to your flutter SDK. For me it's
C:\flutter
. (I'm on Windows) - Open terminal or commandline and
cd
into your app directory. - Build the asset bundle.
flutter build bundle
- Build the kernel snapshot. (Replace
my_app_name
with the name of your app)C:\flutter\bin\cache\dart-sdk\bin\dart.exe ^ C:\flutter\bin\cache\dart-sdk\bin\snapshots\frontend_server.dart.snapshot ^ --sdk-root C:\flutter\bin\cache\artifacts\engine\common\flutter_patched_sdk_product ^ --target=flutter ^ --aot ^ --tfa ^ -Ddart.vm.product=true ^ --packages .dart_tool\package_config.json ^ --output-dill build\kernel_snapshot.dill ^ --verbose ^ --depfile build\kernel_snapshot.d ^ package:my_app_name/main.dart
More information
- In versions prior to Flutter 3.3.0 the
--packages
argument should be set to.packages
. In versions greater than or equal to 3.3.0 the--packages
argument should be set to.dart_tool\package_config.json
.
- Fetch the latest
gen_snapshot_linux_x64_release
I provide in the engine binaries repo. - The following steps must be executed on a linux x64 machine. If you're on windows, you can use WSL. If you're on macOS, you can use a linux VM.
- Build the
app.so
. If you're building for arm64, you need to omit the--sim-use-hardfp
flag.gen_snapshot_linux_x64_release \ --deterministic \ --snapshot_kind=app-aot-elf \ --elf=build/flutter_assets/app.so \ --strip \ --sim-use-hardfp \ build/kernel_snapshot.dill
- Now you can switch to your normal OS again.
- Upload the asset bundle and the
app.so
to your Raspberry Pi.orrsync -a --info=progress2 ./build/flutter_assets/ pi@raspberrypi:/home/pi/my_app
scp -r ./build/flutter_assets/ pi@raspberrypi:/home/pi/my_app
- You can now launch the app in release mode using
flutter-pi --release /home/pi/my_app
- We'll build the asset bundle for
flutter_gallery
and deploy it usingrsync
in this example.git clone https://github.com/flutter/gallery.git flutter_gallery git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ardera/flutter-engine-binaries-for-arm.git engine-binaries cd flutter_gallery git checkout d77920b4ced4a105ad35659fbe3958800d418fb9 flutter build bundle C:\flutter\bin\cache\dart-sdk\bin\dart.exe ^ C:\flutter\bin\cache\dart-sdk\bin\snapshots\frontend_server.dart.snapshot ^ --sdk-root C:\flutter\bin\cache\artifacts\engine\common\flutter_patched_sdk_product ^ --target=flutter ^ --aot ^ --tfa ^ -Ddart.vm.product=true ^ --packages .dart_tool\package_config.json ^ --output-dill build\kernel_snapshot.dill ^ --verbose ^ --depfile build\kernel_snapshot.d ^ package:gallery/main.dart wsl ../engine-binaries/arm/gen_snapshot_linux_x64_release \ --deterministic \ --snapshot_kind=app-aot-elf \ --elf=build/flutter_assets/app.so \ --strip \ --sim-use-hardfp \ build/kernel_snapshot.dill rsync -a --info=progress2 ./build/flutter_assets/ pi@raspberrypi:/home/pi/flutter_gallery/ exit
- Done. You can now run this app in release mode using
flutter-pi --release /home/pi/flutter_gallery
.
pi@hpi4:~ $ flutter-pi --help
flutter-pi - run flutter apps on your Raspberry Pi.
USAGE:
flutter-pi [options] <bundle path> [flutter engine options]
OPTIONS:
--release Run the app in release mode. The AOT snapshot
of the app must be located inside the bundle directory.
This also requires a libflutter_engine.so that was
built with --runtime-mode=release.
--profile Run the app in profile mode. The AOT snapshot
of the app must be located inside the bundle directory.
This also requires a libflutter_engine.so that was
built with --runtime-mode=profile.
--vulkan Use vulkan for rendering.
-o, --orientation <orientation> Start the app in this orientation. Valid
for <orientation> are: portrait_up, landscape_left,
portrait_down, landscape_right.
For more information about this orientation, see
the flutter docs for the "DeviceOrientation"
enum.
Only one of the --orientation and --rotation
options can be specified.
-r, --rotation <degrees> Start the app with this rotation. This is just an
alternative, more intuitive way to specify the
startup orientation. The angle is in degrees and
clock-wise.
Valid values are 0, 90, 180 and 270.
-d, --dimensions "width_mm,height_mm" The width & height of your display in
millimeters. Useful if your GPU doesn't provide
valid physical dimensions for your display.
The physical dimensions of your display are used
to calculate the flutter device-pixel-ratio, which
in turn basically "scales" the UI.
--pixelformat <format> Selects the pixel format to use for the framebuffers.
If this is not specified, a good pixel format will
be selected automatically.
Available pixel formats: RGB565, ARGB4444, XRGB4444, ARGB1555, XRGB1555, ARGB8888, XRGB8888, BGRA8888, BGRX8888, RGBA8888, RGBX8888,
--videomode widthxheight
--videomode widthxheight@hz Uses an output videomode that satisfies the argument.
If no hz value is given, the highest possible refreshrate
will be used.
-h, --help Show this help and exit.
EXAMPLES:
flutter-pi ~/hello_world_app
flutter-pi --release ~/hello_world_app
flutter-pi -o portrait_up ./my_app
flutter-pi -r 90 ./my_app
flutter-pi -d "155, 86" ./my_app
flutter-pi --videomode 1920x1080 ./my_app
flutter-pi --videomode 1280x720@60 ./my_app
SEE ALSO:
Author: Hannes Winkler, a.k.a ardera
Source: https://github.com/ardera/flutter-pi
License: MIT
For instructions on how to build an asset bundle or an AOT snapshot
of your app, please see the linked github repository.
For a list of options you can pass to the flutter engine, look here:
https://github.com/flutter/engine/blob/main/shell/common/switches.h
<asset bundle path>
is the path of the flutter asset bundle directory (i.e. the directory containing kernel_blob.bin
)
of the flutter app you're trying to run.
[flutter engine options...]
will be passed as commandline arguments to the flutter engine. You can find a list of commandline options for the flutter engine Here.
Gstreamer video player is a newer video player based on gstreamer.
To use the gstreamer video player, just rebuild flutter-pi (delete your build folder and reconfigure) and make sure the necessary gstreamer packages are installed. (See dependencies)
And then, just use the stuff in the official video_player package. (VideoPlayer
, VideoPlayerController
, etc, there's nothing specific you need to do on the dart-side)
Graphics performance is actually pretty good. With most of the apps inside the flutter SDK -> examples -> catalog
directory I get smooth 50-60fps on the Pi 4 2GB and Pi 3 A+.
Due to the way the touchscreen driver works in raspbian, there's some delta between an actual touch of the touchscreen and a touch event arriving at userspace. The touchscreen driver in the raspbian kernel actually just repeatedly polls some buffer shared with the firmware running on the VideoCore, and the videocore repeatedly polls the touchscreen. (both at 60Hz) So on average, there's a delay of 17ms (minimum 0ms, maximum 34ms). Actually, the firmware is polling correctly at ~60Hz, but the linux driver is not because there's a bug. The linux side actually polls at 25Hz, which makes touch applications look terrible. (When you drag something in a touch application, but the application only gets new touch data at 25Hz, it'll look like the application itself is redrawing at 25Hz, making it look very laggy) The github issue for this raspberry pi kernel bug is here. Leave a like on the issue if you'd like to see this fixed in the kernel.
This is why I created my own (userspace) touchscreen driver, for improved latency & polling rate. See this repo for details. The driver is very easy to use and the difference is noticeable, flutter apps look and feel a lot better with this driver.
Package | Category | Author | Description |
---|---|---|---|
flutterpi_tool (package) (repo) | 🔧 tooling | Hannes Winkler (me) | Tool to make developing & distributing apps for flutter-pi easier. |
flutter_gpiod (package) (repo) | 🖨 peripherals | Hannes Winkler | GPIO control support for dart/flutter, uses kernel interfaces directly for more performance. |
linux_serial (package) (repo) | 🖨 peripherals | Hannes Winkler | Serial Port support for dart/flutter, uses kernel interfaces directly for more performance. |
linux_spidev (package) (repo) | 🖨 peripherals | Hannes Winkler | SPI bus support for dart/flutter, uses kernel interfaces directly for more performance. |
dart_periphery (package) (repo) | 🖨 peripherals | Peter Sauer | All-in-one package GPIO, I2C, SPI, Serial, PWM, Led, MMIO support using c-periphery. |
flutterpi_gstreamer_video_player (package) (repo) | ⏯️ multimedia | Hannes Winkler | Official video player implementation for flutter-pi. See GStreamer video player section above. |
charset_converter (package) (repo) | 🗚 encoding | Bartosz Wiśniewski | Encode and decode charsets using platform built-in converter. |
There a #custom-embedders
channel on the flutter discord which you can use if you have any questions regarding flutter-pi or generally, anything related to embedding the engine for which you don't want to open issue about or write an email.