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| {{Current event}} | | {{mininav| [[Development]] {{l2| [[Linux]] }} }} |
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| [[Team-XBMC]] have [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porting ported] XBMC Media Center software to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux Linux] a couple of years ago, (for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL OpenGL] using the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_DirectMedia_Layer SDL toolkit]), this port is almost as feature complete as XBMC for any other platform and it is currently running very well and stable enough for all people to enjoy using it. The long term goal of [[Team-XBMC]] is that [http://xbmc.org/download downloading XBMC for Linux] will become a full port of XBMC with [[XBMC Features and Supported Formats/Codecs|all the features and functions that are available on all other XBMC platforms]] ''(with the exception of Xbox exclusive functionality such as [[Using Trainers|Trainers]], Xbox Game-Save Manager, launching Xbox Games, etc.)'', so [http://xbmc.org/download downloading XBMC for Linux] will be one version of a multi-platform software.
| | {{cleanup}} |
| | {{Kodi_development_nav}} |
| | <section begin="intro" />Team Kodi (formerly called Team-XBMC) first ported XBMC Media Center software to Linux in 2007, and the whole project cross-platform application was renamed to Kodi in 2014. Kodi itself is a huge open source project and it takes loads of people working together to maintain it for all platforms, that is why Team-Kodi is always on the lookout for C/C++ programmers to volunteer in assisting us with the development of Kodi. Whether you have contributed to the Kodi/XBMC project in the past or not, please consider doing so now.<section end="intro" /> |
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| XBMC is a huge open source project and it takes loads of people working together to maintain it for all platforms, that is why [[Team-XBMC]] is always on the lookout for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_language C/C++ programmers] to volunteer in assisting us with the development of XBMC. Whether you have contributed to [http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmc The XBMC Project] in the past or not, please consider doing so now.
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| :'''Note to XBMC end-users!''' You can help too by [http://xbmc.org/download downloading XBMC for Linux], testing it, and [[HOW-TO Submit a Proper Bug Report|reporting bugs and issues]]. Also, spread the word about [http://xbmc.org/download XBMC for Linux] to your friends and family, we are sure they will enjoy it too. XBMC is free and do not contain any spy-ware nor add-ware.
| | == End-users (non-programmers) == |
| | You can help too by downloading Kodi for Linux, testing it, and [[HOW-TO:Submit_a_bug_report|reporting bugs and issues]]. Also, spread the word about Kodi for Linux(and other platforms) to your friends and family, we are sure they will enjoy it too. |
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| Those of you who are completely unfamiliar with XBMC can get a good overview of the features and functions that XBMC offers for its [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-user end-users] by reading through the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBMC XBMC article on wikipedia.org]
| | == Developers (programmers) == |
| | You should be proficient in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_language C/C++ programming language], and although not really required knowledge of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL OpenGL] or other [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia multimedia] programming is a plus, as well as prior [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-platform cross-platform] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porting porting] development experience. |
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| =What is XBMC and why port it to Linux?= | | == Where do I start on Linux? == |
| For the developers who does not know this; '''XBMC Media Center''' (formerly named "XBox Media Center", not to be confused with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Center_Extender Microsoft's Windows Media Center Extender for the Xbox]) is an award-winning free and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source open source] media player, originally designed to run on the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox Xbox game-console]. The GPL/LGPL licensed source code basically consist of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_framework GUI framework] that has been written from scratch by [[Team-XBMC]], this GUI acts as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front-end front-end control interface] for several audio/video players designed for specific purposes (and those are loaded when needed as DLLs), the GUI is also the user interface to [[XBMC Features and Supported Formats/Codecs|all of XBMC multimedia handling functions such as databases and sorting, etc.]]. [http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmc The XBMC Project], (who's members maintain XBMC source code), is a non-profit open source hobby project that is developed by volunteers in their spare-time without any monetary gain. The team of developers working on XBMC have always encouraged anyone to submit your own source code patches for new [[XBMC_Features_and_Supported_Formats/Codecs|features or functions]], improve on existing ones, or fix bugs.
| | General and distribution specific guides on HOW-TO compile Kodi for Linux from source code is available in this whis, and there is also an up-to-date README for Ubuntu Linux available in the [https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc XBMC Foundation git repo on GitHub]. |
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| The difference this time is that we are not asking for new [[XBMC_Features_and_Supported_Formats/Codecs|features/functions]], what we are asking is for the existing code to be ported so it will compile and run under a Linux operating-system (with the same [[XBMC_Features_and_Supported_Formats/Codecs|features/functions]] that are already available on the Xbox version of XBMC). The main reasons for porting XBMC to Linux are non-technical, (so it is not that the Xbox hardware is too slow or to old for the XBMC GUI or its existing [[XBMC_Features_and_Supported_Formats/Codecs|features/functions]]), the real reasons are that we want XBMC to get a larger end-user and developer-base, because the more people who use XBMC and help maintain the code (and skins) the longer the project will grow and stay alive. The main reason from an end-user point of view is that the Xbox can not playback native high-definition video (at 720p and 1080i/1080p), especially not if the video is encoded with a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264 H.264] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VC-1 VC-1] codec. Nevertheless, note that we will still keep the old Xbox as the reference platform for standard-definition resolution video for some time (possibly a few more years), which means that the same GUI (and skins) that runs smooth under Linux on a relatively new computer must also run just as smooth on the old Xbox hardware (or a old computer that closely matches the Xbox hardware, at 733Mhz Intel Pentium III CPU and only 64MB shared memory with supported 3D accelerator). | | The recommended '''Linux development platform''' is currently [[Compiling_Kodi|32-bit Ubuntu Desktop (for x86)]]. The code can be obtained by cloning the xbmc [http://git-scm.com/ git] repository hosted on [https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc Github]. First use your package manager to install git on your system and then execute the following command to clone your own repository: <br /> |
| | <br /><code> |
| | git clone git://github.com/xbmc/xbmc.git |
| | </code><br /> |
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| | After the clone has completed, follow the compilation/development guide in the new repository ([[Compiling_Kodi|README.linux]]) to setup the required packages and so on. Team-XBMC developers opinion is that the best thing to start with is just to take a look through the source code and try to understand how it all fits together. Test things out, find what works and what does not, then try and track down why. |
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| =Skill requirements and where to start=
| | Alternatively, you can [https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads download VirtualBox] and follow this guide to install the required software: [[Compiling_Kodi|Ubuntu Desktop (32-bit for x86)]]. Besides from KDevelop, additional development tools that can be useful include Subcommander, Doxygen, Sysprof and PowerTop. |
| Proficient in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_language C/C++ programming language], and though not required knowledge of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL OpenGL] and/or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia multimedia] programming is a plus, as well as prior [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-platform cross-platform] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porting porting] development experience. You do not need to have access to an Xbox game-console or any special tools/software in order to take part - XBMC development is well underway on [[HOW-TO compile XBMC for Linux from source code|Linux (32-bit Ubuntu for x86)]].
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| ==Where do I start (Linux)?==
| | The performance of a virtual machine is not great, as there is no 3D hardware acceleration support under a virtual machine, however it should work good enough to get a lot of development tasks done. Nice is also that you can install/run [https://www.virtualbox.org/ VirtualBox] on Windows, OS X and Linux. The free VirtualBox also enables you to share data seamlessly between the virtual machine and host computer, and also allows you to directly access USB 2.0 devices from within the virtual machine. To improve the performance of your virtual machine, you can increase the number of cores on a multi-core system that is assigned to your virtual machine. |
| The recommended '''Linux development platform''' is currently [[HOW-TO compile XBMC for Linux from source code|32-bit Ubuntu Desktop (for x86)]]. There is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kdevelop Kdevelop] project file available in our [http://sourceforge.net/svn/?group_id=87054 SVN (Subversion revision control system)]. After you have done a [http://sourceforge.net/svn/?group_id=87054 SVN checkout], follow the install guide in the SVN ([[HOW-TO compile XBMC for Linux from source code|README.linux]]) to setup the required packages and so on. Team-XBMC developers opinion is that the best thing to start with is just to take a look through the source code and try to understand how it all fits together. Test things out, find what works and what does not, then try and track down why. | |
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| Alternatively, you can download a finished VMware Virtual Machine (VM) and run that in the free [http://www.vmware.com/products/free_virtualization.html VMware Player] (or use in VMware Workstation, or VMware Server). The VM available for download below is based on [[HOW-TO compile XBMC for Linux from source code|Ubuntu Desktop (32-bit for x86)]], and all the prerequisite software is installed (including KDevelop). Performance is not great using this, as there is no 3D hardware acceleration support under a virtual machine, however it should work good enough to get a lot of development tasks done without you having to bother with install of Ubuntu Desktop yourself. Nice is also that you can install/run [http://www.vmware.com/products/free_virtualization.html VMware Player 2.0 and later] under Linux as well as Microsoft Windows (including Windows Vista), 32-bit and 64-bit operating-system. The free [http://www.vmware.com/products/free_virtualization.html VMware Player 2.0 and later] also enables you to share data seamlessly between the virtual machine and host computer, and also allows you to directly access USB 2.0 devices from within the virtual machine, (experimental support for 2-way Virtual SMP to assign more than a single CPU to a virtual machine is also available for testing purposes).
| | === Hardware requirements === |
| | * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86 x86-based computer] (if you don't know what it means, you probably have one). No special hardware is required for development, as developers can compile using the "''make sdl_2d option''" (see [[Compiling_Kodi|README.linux]]). However for end-users the recommended minimum requirement is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Processing_Unit 3D GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)] that at least supports [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shader_model Shader Model 3.0] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL OpenGL 2.0] (that features 24bpp or 32bpp for 3D hardware-acceleration support, which the XBMC GUI needs to run smoothly at an acceptable frame-rate). Graphic adapters that support [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX DirectX version 9.0c] or later usually meet all of those mentioned requirements, (Team Kodi recommends [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia NVIDIA GeForce 6150 or later] as NVIDIA is currently the manufacturer that offers [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_hardware_and_FOSS good device-drivers for Linux] (and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia NVIDIA GeForce 6150 or later] supports OpenGL 2.0). |
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| :*Download: [http://www.aceshome.com/xbmcdev.zip VMware Virtual Machine (VM) with Ubuntu Desktop 7.04 and KDevelop] (userid/password is: xbmc/xbmc).
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| :**Besides from KDevelop, additional development tools included are Subcommander, Doxygen, Sysprof, and PowerTop.
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| :***Note! In order for the PowerTop tool to actually show data, a new kernel needs to be built by yourself.
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| :**Our thanks goes out to [http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=26664 tssgery] for creating and hosting this first VM for the XBMC Linux port development effort.
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| ===Hardware requirements===
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| *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86 x86-based computer]. No other special hardware is required for development, as developers can compile using the "''make sdl_2d option''" (see [[HOW-TO compile XBMC for Linux from source code|README.linux]]). However for end-users the recommended minimum requirement is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Processing_Unit 3D GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)] that at least supports [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shader_model Shader Model 3.0] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL OpenGL 2.0] (that features 24bpp or 32bpp for 3D hardware-acceleration support, which XBMC GUI need to run smoothly at an acceptable frame-rate). Graphic adapters that support [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectX DirectX version 9.0c] or later usually meet all of those mentioned requirements, ([[Team-XBMC]] recommends [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia NVIDIA GeForce 6150 or later] as NVIDIA are currently the manufacturer that offers [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_hardware_and_FOSS good device-drivers for Linux] (and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia NVIDIA GeForce 6150 or later] supports OpenGL 2.0).
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| ==XBMC Linux port FAQ for developers==
| | [[Category:Development]] |
| ===Can non-Linux developers also help?===
| | [[Category:Linux]] |
| XBMC can also be compiled for [[HOW-TO compile XBMC for Windows from source code|Win32 (Microsoft Windows) operating-systems]] with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_Studio Microsoft Visual Studio], or for [[HOW-TO compile XBMC for Mac OS X from source code|Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)]], so even though Team-XBMC will be focusing on the Linux port of XBMC, it will not hurt if some people who prefer and feel comfortable with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_Studio Microsoft Visual Studio] or Eclipse as a development platform also volunteer to help with getting the [[XBMC for Windows port project|XBMC for Windows]] and [[XBMC for Mac OS X port project|XBMC for Mac]] builds up to par with the Linux and Xbox versions of XBMC, this as a preparation for possible future cross-platform versions of XBMC.
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| * [[XBMC for Windows port project]]
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| ** [[HOW-TO compile XBMC for Windows from source code]]
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| * [[XBMC for Mac OS X port project]]
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| ** [[HOW-TO compile XBMC for Mac OS X from source code]]
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| | |
| ===Why is OpenGL 2.0 needed for XBMC?===
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| OpenGL 2.0 is not really the current minimum requirement to run XBMC for Linux, as in reality XBMC will today run with only OpenGL 1.4 + [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLSL GLSL] support (everything else has fall-backs to be runned in software on the CPU, slower than GPU hardware though), however to be sure to stay future-proof Team-XBMC have decided that the OpenGL 2.0 is the recommended minimum requirement.
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| :'''Currently OpenGL 2.0 hardware is only needed for:'''
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| * Any deinterlacing that is not linear blending (which FFmpeg does in software)
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| * Video [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_post-processing video post-processing filtering] (bicubic upscaling, etc.)
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| * Non-power of two textures for the GUI (using NPOT saves a lot of texture memory)
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| * Hardware accelerated YUV 2 RGB conversion (actually GLSL is needed for this, and a few GPU hardware implementations as low as OpenGL 1.4 does provide GLSL as an extension. OpenGL 2.0 guarantees availability of GLSL).
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| :'''In the future OpenGL 2.0 might also be needed for:'''
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| * More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_post-processing video post-processing filters] to improve visual quality perception.
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| * [[Hardware Accelerated Video Decoding]] (using the GPU hardware to assist with video decoding)
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| =Other tools and resources=
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| Though any other tools or resources are not required they can possibly help in development.
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| ==Development Tools==
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| * [http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/ Doxygen] - Source code documentation generator tool.
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| * [http://valgrind.org Valgrind] (for Linux) - a free Linux programming tool for memory debugging, memory leak detection, and profiling.
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| * [http://www.daimi.au.dk/~sandmann/sysprof/ Sysprof] (for Linux) - a free System-wide Linux Profiler for tracking CPU usage. Sysprof is a sampling CPU profiler for Linux that uses a kernel module to profile the entire system, not just a single application. Sysprof handles shared libraries and applications do not need to be recompiled. In fact they don't even have to be restarted. Just insert the kernel module and start sysprof.
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| * [https://registrationcenter.intel.com/RegCenter/NcomForm.aspx?productid=889 VTune Analyzer] Intel® VTune™ Performance Analyzer for Linux (free for non-Commercial use)
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| * [http://www.latencytop.org LatencyTOP] - Intel's LatencyTOP is a tool geared for developers that are interested in visualizing system latencies. LatencyTOP is able to detect where system latencies are originating and displaying the maximum and average time needed for each task.
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| * [http://www.lesswatts.org LessWatts.org] - Projects for saving power with Linux on intel-based platforms.
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| ** [http://www.linuxpowertop.org PowerTOP] - utility by Intel for detecting what Linux programs and kernel tunables are resulting in the most power consumption.
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| ** [http://www.lesswatts.org/projects/tickless/ Tickless Idle] - eliminats the periodic timer tick when the CPU is idle.
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| * [https://registrationcenter.intel.com/RegCenter/NcomForm.aspx?productid=957 Intel® Threading Building Blocks (Intel® TBB) for Linux] - Threading Analysis Tool by Intel (free for non-Commercial use)
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| **[https://registrationcenter.intel.com/RegCenter/NcomForm.aspx?productid=960 Intel Threading Building Blocks for Windows] - same as above but for Win32 (free for non-Commercial use)
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| ** [https://registrationcenter.intel.com/RegCenter/NcomForm.aspx?productid=963 Intel Threading Building Blocks for Mac OS] - same as above but for Mac OSX (free for non-Commercial use)
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| * [https://registrationcenter.intel.com/RegCenter/NcomForm.aspx?productid=892 Intel® Thread Checker for Linux] - Another Threading Analysis Tool by Intel (free for non-Commercial use)
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| * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_walker Dependency walker] (for Microsoft Windows) - a free program used to list the imported and exported functions of a portable executable.
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| * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HLSL2GLSL HLSL2GLSL] - library and tool that converts HLSL (High Level Shader Language) shaders to GLSL (OpenGL Shading Language)
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| * [http://dxshark.sourceforge.net SHARK (Shader Assembly Compiler)] - a tool to perform conversion from DirectX 9 pixel shader assembly language into C++ code
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| * [http://ati.amd.com/developer/ AMD/ATI GPU ShaderAnalyzer] - Support for both Open GL GLSL and DirectX HLSL
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| * [http://www.gremedy.com gDEBugger] - OpenGL debugger and Profiler (helping to find bugs and optimize performance)
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| * [http://christian.helmich.free.fr/kirin/kagefx/index.php KAGEfx] - a framework to load shader programs based on the OpenGL Shading Language contained within an XML file that holds descriptive metadata about the shader and to replace shader modules on-the-fly with respect to their level-of-detail metadata.
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| * [http://uml.sourceforge.net/index.php Umbrello] - UML Modeller
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| * [http://www.baremetalsoft.com/baretail/ Baretail/Baretail Pro] - Log viewer/tailer (Win32/Wine)
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| * [http://directory.fsf.org/project/ghex/ GHex] - Hex Editor
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| * [http://meld.sourceforge.net/ Meld] - Amazing graphical diff/merge tool with SVN support
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| ==Development Resources==
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| * [http://gameprogrammer.com/fastevents/fastevents1.html Fast Event Processing in SDL] - Using threads to speed up the SDL event loop (only meant as an example).
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| * [http://gameprogrammer.com/net2/net2-0.html NET2] - A fast threaded event based networking library for SDL (only meant as an example).
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| * [http://olofson.net/mixed.html SDL programming examples] (including glSDL - a proof of concept implementation of SDL on top of OpenGL)
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| * [http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary OpenCV (Open Computer Vision Library)] - a collection of algorithms and sample code for various computer vision problems. The library is compatible with [http://www.intel.com/cd/software/products/asmo-na/eng/perflib/ipp/302910.htm Intel Image Processing Library (IPL) and utilizes Intel Integrated Performance Primitives] for better performance. Features a bi-linear interpolation and color space conversion functions in IPL, (I also read that motion estimation with block matching and Hough transform is on the road-map so you might want to check out their CVS).
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| ==Third-party libraries==
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| This is a list of third-party cross-platform libraries that you may or may not want to use in the porting process, you decide:
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| ====Graphics and image====
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| * [http://glew.sourceforge.net GLEW (The OpenGL Extension Wrangler Library)] for OpenGL hardware support version detection
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| * [http://www.antigrain.com Anti-Grain Geometry] - High Quality Rendering Engine (High Fidelity 2D Graphics Renderer) for C++
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| * [http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxglwrap/ DirectX OpenGL Wrapper] - emulates API calls through OpenGL commands and other platform specific commands in order to run DirectX 8 application running on other platform than Windows.
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| * [http://www.intel.com/technology/computing/opencv/ Intel Open Source Computer Vision (OpenCV) Library] Intel's Image Processing Library
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| * [http://www.cs.unc.edu/~walk/software/glvu/ GLVU] - cross-platform C++/OpenGL/[http://www.opengl.org/resources/libraries/glut.html GLUT] based 3D OpenGL viewer and collection of utility libraries
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| **You can use all these components together, or just take bits and pieces that do what you need
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| * [http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/glitz Glitz] - OpenGL image composting library (enabling features like convolution filters and color gradients)
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| *[http://www.crusaderky.altervista.org//?s=downloads SDL_buffer] - a SDL extension library that is useful when you have to re-size an image multiple times.
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| * [http://members.cox.net/dolsen6/resize.zip SDL_Resize] - basic image resizing library, high quality output suited for pre-rendering images.
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| * [http://www.ferzkopp.net/~aschiffler/Software/SDL_bgrab/index.html SDL_bgrab] - SDL conversion of libbgrab (a framegrabber lib from the same author).
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| ====Interactive interface====
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| * [http://cmil.sourceforge.net CMIL (Common Media Input Layer)] C++ OO framework designed to improve the state of cross-platform input handling
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| **CMIL is (or will be soon) compatible with both SDL and DirectX (GPL licensed)
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| * [http://hkn.berkeley.edu/~mcmartin/vcontrol/ VControl] - a flexible library for unifying keyboard and joystick input.
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| *[http://libmousetrap.sourceforge.net libmousetrap (The Mousetrap Library)] - C library for SDL (LGPL licenced), also see [http://pymousetrap.sourceforge.net Pymousetrap]
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| * [http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Xbox_360_controller_on_Linux Xbox 360 controller on Linux] - experimental device driver for Xbox360 Wireless/Wired controller on Linux computers.
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| **Interesting fact is that [http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Xbox_360_controller_on_Linux#DDR_Pads Linux kernel 2.6.19 supports for the original XBOX DDR pads (not Xbox360) out-of-the-box].
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| *[http://www.lirc.org LIRC] (or alternative library implementation) for IR/IrDA (infrared) remote controls support under Linux
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| **Possible also add [http://winlirc.sourceforge.net WinLIRC] for IR/IrDA (infrared) remote support under Win32 for consistency.
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| ====Networking====
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| * [http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_net SDL_net] - a simple cross-platform network library
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| ====Performance====
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| * [http://www.intel.com/cd/software/products/asmo-na/eng/linux/219885.htm Optimized String and Memory Functions (Math Performance Library)] (free for non-Commercial use)
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| * [https://registrationcenter.intel.com/RegCenter/NcomForm.aspx?productid=874 Intel® Math Kernel Library (Intel® MKL) for Linux] (free for non-Commercial use)
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| ====Convenience====
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| *[http://sdl-cfg.sourceforge.net SDL_Config] - Library designed for reading and writing configuration (.ini) files in an easy, cross-platform way.
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| *[http://www.crusaderky.altervista.org//?s=downloads navfs] - Hard drive abstraction layer C library, allowing easy directory navigation.
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| * [http://www.cs.unc.edu/~walk/software/glvu/ GLVU] - cross-platform C++/OpenGL/[http://www.opengl.org/resources/libraries/glut.html GLUT] based 3D OpenGL viewer and '''collection of utility libraries'''
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| **You can use all these components together, or just take bits and pieces that do what you need:
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| ***File libs (glvu/fileutils) -C ross-platform routines for searching directories, and manipulating filenames
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| ***Thread lib (glvu/thread) - An OK thread library that works cross-platform
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| ***Timer class (glvu/timer) - Time your code to see how long stuff is taking!
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| ***GL Utilities (glvu/glutils) - Functions for managing textures and doing framebuffer readback and stuff
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| ***Other stuff . Various other handy things that may or may not be useful
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| =Technical summary of XBMC=
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| ==The basics==
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| The XBMC code structure uses a fairly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Module_%28programming%29 modular design] (with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_%28computing%29 libraries] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic-link_library DLL]s), and we think that there are enough modules/libraries to keep a wide skill-level range of developers busy for a while in the porting of them all. So please, take a look at the source code, then with the help of our To-Do list (see further down in this article) assess where the porting stage is today and think about where and how you can try to help out. Note that we are not planning on completely abandoning the Xbox hardware any time soon - XBMC will be a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-platform cross-platform] software application, using the same code on multiple hardware platforms, (the 'old' Xbox still have a good amount of years to live we hope).
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| ==Detailed technical information==
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| For more details please visit the [[Development Notes]] section of this manual.
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| ==The XBMC source code==
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| The XBMC source code is in our SVN repository on sourceforge.net. Full instructions for compiling/builing XBMC under Linux is available here:
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| * [[HOW-TO compile XBMC for Linux from source code]]
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| =Linux porting=
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| ==The Linux port plan==
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| ''Disclaimer: XBMC Linux port of course excludes all Xbox exclusive functionality (like for example [[Using Trainers|Trainers]], launching Xbox Games, etc.)'':
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| * '''Milestone 1''' - Get [[XBMC Features and Supported Formats/Codecs|all existing XBMC functionality (features/functions)]] working as they already work on the Xbox version of XBMC.
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| **During this first phase XBMC will only need to be running as app in a third-party [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment Linux Desktop Environment] (ie. under KDE/GNOME)
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| **This phase also includes audio/video playback using all of XBMC's player cores ([[MPlayer]], [[DVDPlayer]], [[PAPlayer]], and [[MODPlayer]])
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| * '''Milestone 2''' - Add Linux specific items (hardware configuration, network settings, multiple input-device support, driver packaging, etc.)
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| **During this phase support will be added to also run XBMC as its own [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windowing_system Window Manager / Windowing system] (without KDE/GNOME)
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| **XBMC will need to have all the built-in settings for mouse, keyboard, joystick, etc. to act as a shell (without third-party dependencies)
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| * '''Milestone 3''' - Native 64-bit support (AMD64/EMT64), XBMC and all its libraries to be compiled on and for 64-bit.
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| * '''Milestone 4''' ([[XBMC Live]]) - Package XBMC with a stripped version of an existing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution Linux distribution] as a bootable [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiveDistro LiveDistro (a.k.a. Live CD)] (alternatively our own custom Distribution)
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| **The idea being that XBMC should be installed onto any [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive USB flash drive] using this [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiveDistro LiveDistro (a.k.a. Live CD)] on the target device.
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| **Though a custom version of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution Linux distribution] (stripped for XBMC use only) the plan is still to use a vanilla kernel (if possible).
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| * '''Milestone ?''' - Yet to be decided; after XBMC Linux port reached a certain maturity the "linuxport" branch in SVN might be merged into the "main SVN trunk.
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| ** At this point in time it is impossible to say exactly when and at what stage or even if this merger will ever happen.
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| | |
| ==What has already been on the XBMC for Linux port==
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| These are most of the major things that are already working in XBMC for Linux:
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| *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kdevelop Kdevelop] project file available in SVN
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| **Linux development and debug environment
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| *Code fully compiles on [HOW-TO compile XBMC for Linux from source code|Ubuntu Deskop Linux (32-bit x86)]
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| *GUI implementation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_DirectMedia_Layer SDL]
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| **OpenGL/SDL - using the GPU, working but relies on an accelerated OpenGL version
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| **SDL using 2D blitting, working but relies on computer CPU, not recommended (XBMC requires 24bpp to run, so if your graphic card doesn't have 3D accel for 24bpp -as i810 ones- then you have to compile using the option 'make sdl_2d')
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| *Picture viewing working (including slideshow and it's effects)
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| *SMB network shares
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| *[[PAPlayer]] and its major audio decoder DLL codecs. Some codecs have still not been ported. See To-Do list below.
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| **(checkout [[HOW-TO: Debug Dynamic Link Libraries]])
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| *Video playback using our [[DVDPlayer]] core
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| **Hardware accelerated pixel shader (RGB->YUV) with Nvidia and ATI
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| **Software conversion from RGB->YUV on other graphics cards due to lack of proper OpenGL support (tested on Intel)
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| *Weather
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| *Basic python scripting
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| *Visualization - OpenGL spectrum analyzer, Waveform, ProjectM (some issues need to be worked out)
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| *Remote control support using LIRC
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| *Gamepad/joystick support
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| | |
| ==To-Do list for the XBMC Linux port==
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| This is a '''To-Do list''' of things that still need to be done in '''XBMC for Linux''', anyone is more than welcome to help out with any of these tasks:
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| ====Major To-Do tasks with high priority====
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| * [MAJOR - HIGH PRIORITY] [[DVDPlayer]] porting to Linux - ''work in progress''. Open Issues:
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| ** Partial support for external subtitles (SRT/SMI/SSA/MicroDVD and DVD-Video/VobSub subtitles are currently supported)
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| ** Deinterlacing (software and hardware)
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| * [MAJOR - HIGH PRIORITY] Python interpreter (and python scripts/libraries) - ''work in progress (in early stages)''. Open Issues:
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| ** Start the same script a few times and it crashes
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| ** Some crashes in TransformMatrix
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| * [MAJOR - HIGH PRIORITY] Network: Clients (Time)
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| **Also all network settings needed available to the end-user from the the XBMC GUI settings section.
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| ====Major To-Do tasks with medium priority====
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| * [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] Development of a [[OpenGL_DirectX_Interface|platform-independent wrapper interface]] to SDL / DirectX / OpenGL / graphic backend interfaces, particularly with respect to how this interface should be exported to visualisations (.vis) and screensavers (.xscr), etc.
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| * [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] NTSC and PAL-50/PAL-60 TV-out settings for composite, S-Video and standard-definition component
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| * [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] Development of a platform-independent wrapper interface to SDL / DirectX / ALSA /OSS / OpenAL audio backend interfaces.
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| * [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] Audio-output hardware settings (and if user got AC3 / DTS capable reciever or not)
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| **Stereo, head-phones, 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, S/PDIF pass-through, etc.
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| * [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] Support [[USB Mass Storage support in XBMC|USB Mass Storage]] disks dynamically (meaning, inserted/removed after boot)
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| * [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] [http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=137 Visualisations]: Port all existing XBMC visualizations to also support OpenGL/Linux
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| * [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] [http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=7552 Screensavers]: Port all existing XBMC screensavers to also support OpenGL/Linux
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| **Some kind of detection code and tags will have to be added so only supported .vis is listed under system platform
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| * [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] "My Programs" section for Linux (to launch Linux games/applications/emulators)
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| ====Major To-Do tasks with low priority====
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| * [MAJOR - LOW PRIORITY] [[Hardware Accelerated Video Decoding]] offloading to the GPU in some shape or form.
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| **[[Hardware Accelerated Video Decoding|The possible methods are XvMC, GLSL or Cg Pixel Shader (Shader Model 3.0), and/or GPGPU technology]]
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| * [MAJOR - LOW PRIORITY] Credits (make it support DirectX and OpenGL, detect platform. Plus add some [http://developer.download.nvidia.com/shaderlibrary/webpages/shader_library.html eye-candy])
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| * [MAJOR - LOW PRIORITY] Hibernation - Suspend to Disk (STD) (code should be completly different from STR)
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| **Hibernation (Suspend to Disk), only if could somehow be used to speed up the initial boot-time. See [http://kerneltrap.org/kexec_hibernation kexec]
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| * [MAJOR - LOW PRIORITY] Suspend and Resume support - Suspend to RAM (STR) (not to share code with STD)
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| * [MAJOR - LOW PRIORITY] Sysinfo section under Linux for x86 computers (CPU, GPU, chipset, and HDD temperature, etc.)
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| * [MAJOR - LOW PRIORITY] [http://lcdsmartie.sourceforge.net LCD/VFD External Display Panel] support (USB/RS323/I2C connections) via [http://ssl.bulix.org/projects/lcd4linux/ LCD4Linux] or [http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net/index.php3 LCDproc]
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| * [MAJOR - LOW PRIORITY] Native 64-bit support (AMD64/EMT64), XBMC and all its libraries to compile on and for 64-bit.
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| * [MAJOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] [[MPlayer]] porting to Linux
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| ====Minor To-Do Tasks with high priority====
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| * [MINOR - HIGH PRIORITY] Fix hacks which might not work on some platforms (improve cross-platform code)
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| ====Minor To-Do Tasks with medium priority====
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| * [MINOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] Video adapter / graphic controller settings inside XBMC GUI settings:
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| ** [http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/ConfigurationInfrastructure DRI configuration] settings
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| ** xorg.conf configuration settings
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| ** VSYNC enabling/disabling setting
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| * [MINOR - MEDIUM PRIORITY] [http://www.lirc.org LIRC] or alternative implementation for IR/IrDA (infrared) remote support under Linux - ''work in progress''
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| **Though maybe not possible/best, it might be smart if "IR/IrDA" could be added to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_DirectMedia_Layer SDL] via [http://cmil.sourceforge.net CMIL] for platform-independence(?).
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| **Add [http://lirc.sourceforge.net/remotes/ default configurations mappings] to "Lircmap.xml" of the most popular HTPC-remotes (like Microsoft RC6 MCE control-Done, Meedio X10 remote, ATI Remote Wonder, SnapStream Firefly).
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| **Also add [http://winlirc.sourceforge.net WinLIRC] for IR/IrDA (infrared) remote support support under XBMC's Win32 (Microsoft Windows) build for consistency.
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| | |
| ====Minor To-Do Tasks with low priority====
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| * [MINOR - LOW PRIORITY] make sure .AAC plays gapless with PAPlayer
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| * [MINOR - LOW PRIORITY] port ASAP codec for PAPlayer
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| * [MINOR - LOW PRIORITY] Support better anti-aliased text (subpixel accuracy via vertex/pixel shaders) rendering. Basic idea is to cache the characters to an 8 bit texture at 3 times the horizontal resolution, and have that texture loaded into the 3 texture slots, and use a pixel shader/vertex shader to compute the texcoords for each component of the pixel (RGB) to get 1/3rd pixel positioning and antialiasing. This can probably be extended to even more precise location by increasing the size of the texture cache (eg 2x vertical, 6x horizontal)
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| | |
| ====Cleanup To-Do Tasks====
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| * [CLEANUP - ALWAYS AN ONGOING PROCESS] Document (doxygenize) all of the current/existing code (using [http://www.doxygen.org doxygen])
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| * [CLEANUP - ALWAYS AN ONGOING PROCESS] [http://valgrind.org/ Valgrind] debugging (also back-port any fixes to the Xbox and Win32 code branch)
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| ====Post-trunk-merger To-Do Tasks====
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| After XBMC Linux port reached a maturity the "linuxport" branch in SVN may be merged into the "main SVN trunk" which will require:
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| *Merge dllLoader (DLL loader) and soLoader (SO loader), and rename to just "loader", (similar to [http://svn.mplayerhq.hu/mplayer/trunk/loader/ MPlayer cross-platform loader library])
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| *Merge "Lircmap.xml" into "Keymap.xml" (creating a sub-section in Keymap.xml for LIRC)
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| =XBMC programming and code formatting convention guidelines=
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| :'''Note!''' More specifics to come based on ongoing discussions, see [http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=5238 Proposed code formatting conventions for XBMC]
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| | |
| ==General guidelines==
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| * Code documentation (DocBook, rst, or [http://www.doxygen.org doxygen] for the code documentation steps, preferably the latter, [http://www.doxygen.org doxygen])
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| * Self-containment - XBMC should be as little dependent as possible on operating-system and third-party services/deamons/libraries
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| **XBMC should for example contain all file-system and network-client (like samba) support built-into the XBMC package
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| * Modular design - independent modules made up by localized/isolated code libraries without dependencies
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| ** XBMC should still compile and run if a non-essencial module/library is disabled or removed
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| * Aim for the GUI/interface to run smoothly on a low spec computer (less than 1Ghz)
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| **3D graphic controller (GPU) will always be required hardware for XBMC so try to utilize the GPU as much as possible
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| * Avoid harddisk trashing (excess read/write/erase cycles), so no harddrive paging, (utilize RAM memory intead).
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| **End-users will be running XBMC and the operating-system on Solid-State memory as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiveDistro Live CD (LiveDistro)] of a USB-key
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| * Fast load and boot times for end-user perception (other thing can still run/start in the background without the user knowledge)
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| **15-seconds or less from when the end user press the power-button on the computer till he/she can browse the GUI
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| | |
| ==User-friendliness is next to godlyness==
| |
| One of [[Team-XBMC]] major ongoing goal have always been to make XBMC and its [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user_interface user interface] even more [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/intuitive intuitive] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user-friendliness user-friendly] for its [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-user end-users], based on the '''KISS''' ('''K'''eep '''I'''t '''S'''imple '''S'''tupid) philosophy. We think that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability usability] is very important for media players like XBMC. Many user interface deciscions are being made by developers who often have little experience in user interface design, in order to improve this, we try to listen to XBMC's end-users for how XBMC is actually being used and how we can improve the user experience. We also aim to do regular overhauls, improving existing features/functions, and scrapping outdated code and features/functions (as "to much stuff" can also be a bad thing).
| |
| ===XBMC as a whole must...===
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| *Be easy to install, set up, and maintain, (so that the end-users do not get fed up with it and quit).
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| *Have an user interface simple and intuitive enough so that less geek-savvy people are not intimidated by it.
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| **Make common usage easy, simple '[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-computer_interaction Human–Computer Interaction (HCI)]', from the viewpoint of an ordinary user.
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| *Be able to play audio and video files that have been compressed using divx, xvid, etc. directly out-of-the-box
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| *Be able to and organize audio and video files in an easy and user-friendly way.
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| *Use standards and be consistant, (the music section can for example not use completely different controls from the video section)
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| *Perform actions in the GUI with as few 'clicks' as possible
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| *Require little to none non-GUI configuration (and all such non-GUI config should be via [[advancedsettings.xml]])
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| **There is still a little work to be done here, for example RSS-feeds settings need to moved to the GUI
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| *Look nice.
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| ===XBMC developers should always strive to===
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| * '''Promote open source''' - XBMC is based on the ideas of FOSS (free open source software), licensed under the GPL and builds partly on other open source projects which we do our best to support. The GPL should be respected at all times. All code should be committed to the XBMC project’s SVN before any public binaries are released.
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| * '''Promote the sharing of knowledge and collaboration''' - Through the use of information sharing tools and practices XBMC is a collaborative environment.
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| * '''Understand that development is a team effort''' - Treating our users as co-developers has proven to be the most effective option for rapid development. Always strive to work as a team at all times. Actively promote discussion on new features and bug fixes, and respect others comments and criticisms with replies in a timely fashion.
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| * '''Apply the Law of Diminishing Return''' - The majority of the effort should be invested in implementing features which have the most benefit and widest general usage by the community.
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| * '''Try to make all code, feature, and functions to be platform agnostic''' - XBMC is a multi-platform software, thus any single platform specific features should be discussed with other team members before implemented. Major features should be developed in a separate branch or committed in small increments so that other members have the opportunity to review the code and comment on it during development.
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| | |
| =Mentors=
| |
| Mentors are developers from [[Team XBMC and Others|Team-XBMC]] and members of [http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmc The XBMC Project] that have volunteered to assist and mentor non-official XBMC developers in any non-trivial way they can, helping you by checking, commenting and committing your code patches to our SVN source code tree. These mentors have chosen an area they prefer to specialize in, usually this is an area in which they feel they have most interest, knowledge, and expertise in. Initial [[HOW-TO submit a patch|patches are welcome]], and can and will be merged by the team. If you wish to [[Apply to join the Official XBMC Development-Team|join the team in an official capacity]], please let us know.
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| | |
| ==Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows port mentors and developers==
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| If you are a C/C++ programmer expert, porting specialist or guru and like to volunteer as a ''''third-party'''' mentor and/or developer then please let us know.
| |
| ===Linux Mentors (also lead developers)===
| |
| * [[User:Yuvalt|Yuvalt]]: Everything Linux
| |
| * [[User:Vulkanr|Vulkanr]]: Everything Linux
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| * [[User:Jmarshall|JMarshall]]: Anything GUI related, Music Library, Video Library, PAPlayer, etc.
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| * [[User:D4rk|D4rk]]: OpenGL, other Linux stuff
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| * [[User:Elupus|Elupus]]: DllLoader, Mplayer and DVDPlayer
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| * [[User:Spiff|Spiff]]: Anything other than DllLoader/MPlayer/DVDPlayer internals.
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| * [[User:monkeyman 67156|monkeyman 67156]]: Everything Linux
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| * [[User:Topfs2|Topfs2]]: Everything Linux
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| * [[User:malloc|malloc]]: Everything Linux
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| ====Mac OS X Mentors (also lead developers)====
| |
| * [[User:Davilla|Davilla]]: Everything Mac OS X
| |
| * [[User:D4rk|D4rk]]: OpenGL, other Mac OS X and Linux stuff
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| * [[User:malloc|malloc]]: Everything Mac OS X and Linux
| |
| * [[User:Vulkanr|Vulkanr]]: Everything Mac OS X and Linux
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| | |
| ====Windows Mentors====
| |
| * [[User:WiSo|WiSo]]: Everything Win32 (SDL, not DirectX)
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| * [[User:Chadoe|Chadoe (a.k.a. Charly)]] - Everything Win32 (SDL, not DirectX)
| |
| * [[User:Jmarshall|JMarshall]]: Anything GUI related, Music Library, Video Library, PAPlayer, etc.
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| | |
| =Contact methods=
| |
| These are developers forums for XBMC development, (programmers/coders only!).<br>
| |
| Respect, these are not for posting feature-requests or end-user support requests!
| |
| * IRC: [irc://irc.freenode.net/xbmc-linux #xbmc-linux on freenode] official [http://freenode.net IRC network channel] for the XBMC Linux port project
| |
| **(You may also sometimes find developers hanging out at [irc://irc.freenode.net/xbmc #xbmc on freenode])
| |
| * IRC: [irc://irc.freenode.net/xbmc-osx #xbmc-osx on freenode] official [http://freenode.net IRC network channel] for the XBMC Mac OS X port
| |
| * [http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?f=41 XBMC for Linux port Community-Forum for developers only]
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| ** [http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?f=52 XBMC for Linux port Community-Forum for end-users (unmoderated so far)]
| |
| * [http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?f=57 XBMC for Mac OS X port Community-Forum for developers only]
| |
| ** [http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?f=56 XBMC for Mac OS X port Community-Forum for end-users (unmoderated so far)]
| |
| * [http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?f=58 XBMC for Windows port Community-Forum for developers only]
| |
| ** [http://forum.xbmc.org/forumdisplay.php?f=59 XBMC for Windows port Community-Forum for end-users (unmoderated so far)]
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| | |
| * [[HOW-TO submit a patch]] (where and how to submit source code)
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| | |
| [[category:Inner Workings]]
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| [[category:Development]]
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| [[category:Skin Development]]
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| [[category:Linux]]
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| [[category:XBMC Live]]
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| [[category:Mac OS X]]
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| [[category:OpenGL]]
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| [[category:To-Do]]
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| [[category:Google Summer of Code]]
| |
Development 