GStreamer using jhbuild
JHBuild is a build tool that automates the process of
building the GNOME software stack. It is organized somewhat like a package manager and is cabable of tracking dependencies between packages. JHBuild elminates a great deal of the work of compiling GStreamer manually.
Warning: The following instructions are not supported by the PiTiVi developers. They are provided for informational purposes only. The author takes no responsibility for damage you may cause to your system as a result of attempting to follow these instructions. Proceed at your own risk! Your results may vary.
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Intended Audience
This document is primarily intended for PiTiVi developers and testers who need to test PiTiVi against the latest development versions of gstreamer. It is emphatically not intended for end users You are assumed to be familiar with the process of compiling software from source, and how to deal with problems when they arise.
These instructions assume a debian-based system. For non-debian systems, replace the apt-get commands and package names with those appropriate for your distro.
For more information on JHBUild, see http://live.gnome.org/Jhbuild
Installing GStreamer Using JHBuild
First things first: Make sure your system is up-to-date, and for ubuntu, make sure universe, multiverse, etc are enabled in System -> Administration -> Software Sources. Then run:
sudo apt-get install git-core gettext build-essential \ libglew1.5 libglew1.5-dev python-gtk2-dev autoconf \ automake1.9 cvs libxml2-dev liboil0.3-dev subversion
Get some coffee...
Install GStreamer Build Dependencies
sudo apt-get build-dep libgstreamer0.10-0 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0 \
gstreamer0.10-{plugins-{good,bad,ugly},ffmpeg}
On Debian and Ubuntu Maverick you may also need to install autopoint
sudo apt-get install autopoint && \
sudo apt-get build-dep libgstreamer0.10-0 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0 \
gstreamer0.10-{plugins-{good,bad,ugly},ffmpeg}
Get some more coffee...
To have the x264 encoder (for H.264) available, you should also install the libx264-dev package.
Configure Your Environment
If you do not have ~/bin and ~/src directories, create them:
cd mkdir bin mkdir src
If ~/bin and ~/.local/bin are not already in your path, do this:
echo 'export PATH=${HOME}/bin/:${HOME}/.local/bin:${PATH}' >> ~/.bashrc
exec bash
Install JHbuild
cd src git clone git://git.gnome.org/jhbuild cd jhbuild make -f Makefile.plain make -f Makefile.plain install
Install gst-jhbuild Script
cd ~/bin cat > gst-jhbuild << "EOF"
And paste the following (then press Enter):
#!/bin/bash JHBUILDFILE=$HOME/src/gstreamer/jhbuild/gstreamer.jhbuildrc jhbuild -f $JHBUILDFILE "$@" EOF
Then run:
chmod +x gst-jhbuild
Install JHBuild Config Files for GStreamer
cd mkdir -p src/gstreamer/jhbuild cd src/gstreamer/jhbuild cat > gstreamer.jhbuildrc << "EOF"
And paste the following:
# gstreamer.jhbuildrc
moduleset = [os.path.expanduser('~/src/gstreamer/jhbuild/gstreamer.modules')]
modules = [ 'my-gst-all' ]
checkoutroot = os.path.expanduser('~/src/gstreamer/repos')
prefix = os.path.expanduser('~/src/gstreamer/install')
autogenargs = ''
autogenargs = autogenargs + ' --disable-static'
# consider commenting this out on a single-core system or using -j3, -j4 or -j7
# on systems with > 2 cores
makeargs = "-j2"
os.environ['ACLOCAL'] = 'aclocal -I ' + prefix + '/share/aclocal/'
os.environ['INSTALL'] = os.path.expanduser('~/bin/install-check')
EOF
If you want to disable building documentation (to save time), use the --disable-gtk-doc parameter, like so:
autogenargs = autogenargs + ' --disable-static --disable-gtk-doc'
Then run:
wget https://github.com/emdash/gst-jhbuild/raw/f5decae2003b02ce0c19eb677c354649a69ceedb/gstreamer.modules
Note: the official gstreamer module set is available here. Using the official module set may require changes to gstreamer.jhbuildrc
Build gstreamer
cd gst-jhbuild build
Get lunch...
Problems
If you're lucky, you'll have a freshly-built copy of gstreamer when you come back from lunch. If you're unlucky, you'll be staring at a prompt similar to this one:
*** Error during phase build of gstreamer: ########## Error running make -j2 *** [1/10] [1] Rerun phase build [2] Ignore error and continue to install [3] Give up on module [4] Start shell [5] Reload configuration [6] Go to phase "wipe directory and start over" [7] Go to phase "configure" [8] Go to phase "clean" [9] Go to phase "distclean"
If a build failure occurs, it's probably because one or more of the above steps were performed incorrectly. Go back over everything and figure out what you did wrong. Likely sources of error are missing dependencies. Beyond that, you are assumed to be familiar with the process of building software from source and capable of resolving issues with software compilation. Having said that, sometimes waiting a few minutes and trying again with option [6] will magically just work.
One hint you can use to diagnose problems with gstreamer.jhbuildrc and gstreamer.modules is to start a subshell and see if the sources build normally when you run
make clean && ./autogen.sh && make
If the sources build normally in this fashion but not using JHBuild, you can bet that JHBuild or its configuration files are to blame.
Option [4] will start a shell at that build phase. You can use it to tweak the source tree as you see fit, and when you exit the shell you'll be returned to the menu where you can resume the build process.
Note:
- if you want to continue build at the configuration phase (i.e. re-run ./configure), do that from the menu! Otherwise, the install phase will fail.
- if you change gstreamer.jhbuildrc or gstreamer.modules, you can try to reload the configuration with option [5] but in the author's experience, your best bet is to kill and re-start JHBuild.
If you think you've determined that there is a problem with the gstreamer.jhbuildrc, gstreamer.modules, or these instructions, report this on the PiTiVi irc channel or on the PiTiVi mailing list. We will try to keep the JHBuild config files up-to-date.
Keep in mind that the PiTiVi developers want to spend their time working on PiTiVi, and any issues you have with gstreamer or its dependencies should be taken up with the developers and maintainers of those projects. The PiTiVi developers will not help you figure out why gstreamer dependency XYZ won't build on your box.
Using Your Installation
Running jhbuild build does not replace your system libraries. Instead, you run gstreamer applications in a subshell as follows:
gst-jhbuild run <your gstreamer application here>
To simply start a shell (to avoid having to keep typing gst-jhbuild with repeated invocations):
gst-jhbuild shell
When you wish to update GStreamer, run this command:
gst-jhbuild update && gst-jhbuild build -ac
Keep in mind that you may encounter build errors when updating as well. See the Problems section above.
