DirectFB Compile

This HOWTO explains howto build and install DirectFB for use with the VLC directfb plugin.

For more details on DirectFB and its requirements you need to check the Internet site of DirectFB.

Building DirectFB on Linux

Download

Download the following DirectFB tarballs:

• Mandatory tarballs:
  • DirectFB-0.9.24.tar.gz
  • linux-fusion-1.1.tar.gz

• Optional tarballs:
  • DirectFBGL-0.9.23.tar.gz
  • FusionSound-0.9.23.tar.gz

Read the DirectFB documentation carefully. You will need it to properly configure your system for use with DirectFB.

Unpack DirectFB-0.9.24.tar.gz:

$> tar -xzvf DirectFB-0.9.24.tar.gz -C directory_where_to_unpack

Build Driver

Build Fusion DirectFB driver

To build the fusion device driver the source for the Linux kernel your system is running must be installed. If this is the case then continue with the following sequence of actions. If not then skip this chapter and continue with building DirectFB itself.

Unpack Linux Fusion driver (linux-fusion-1.1.tar.gz):

$> tar -xzvf linux-fusion-1.1.tar.gz -C directory_where_to_unpack

Build the DirectFB's fusion driver:

$> cd /linux-fusion-1.1/
$> make

And as root (hint: su - root):

$> make install

Copy fusion.h into /usr/include/linux directory:

$> cp linux/include/linux/fusion.h /usr/include/linux

Build DirectFB

Unpack DirectFB-0.9.24.tar.gz:

$> tar -xzvf DirectFB-0.9.24.tar.gz -C directory_where_to_unpack

Configure DirectFB:

$> cd /DirectFB-0.9.24/

If the Fusion DirectFB driver has been compiled and installed against your running version of the Linux kernel, then the DirectFB configure-line looks like this: (If not the --enable-multi can be omitted.)

$> ./configure --enable-multi
$> make

Compiling VideoLAN VLC

Checkout the SVN version from the trunk directory or download one of the nightly snapshots. See http://developers.videolan.org/svn.html for more information. Then configure VLC using the following commandline:

$> ./bootstrap
$> ./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-directfb --with-directfb=directory_where_to_unpack/DirectFB-0.9.24
$> make