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=Introduction=

This is a guide for cross-compiling VLC for Windows CE on Linux with a step-by-step instruction to download, install, configure and build your VLC.

First, you might want to take a look at [[Win32Compile|compiling instructions for Win32]], as the process is roughly the same, and it includes useful discussion and explanations.

= Building VLC =

==Prepare your environment==
VLC uses automake, autoconf and friends for compilation. Make sure they are up to date and usable for your system.

===Get mingw32ce===
To compile VLC, we use Mingw32CE, a cross-development environment for Windows CE. Download the latest version on [http://cegcc.sourceforge.net/ Sourceforge].

Go the the directory where you dowloaded CeGCC, and untar it, for example:
 % tar xjf arm-mingw32ce-0.59.1.tar.bz2 -C /

You should now see the folder /opt/mingw32ce.

==Get the source==
Start by [[GetTheSource|getting the source]], using FTP for releases, or using [[Git]] for development.
If your are using the release, download source code and extract the archive and go into your VLC directory.
 % cd /path/to/your/vlc/folder/

If you are using the [[Git]] version, start by bootstrapping your VLC.
 % cd /path/to/your/vlc/folder/
 % ./bootstrap

==Get the contribs==
You can get official WinCE contribs on [http://download.videolan.org/pub/testing/contrib/ http://download.videolan.org/pub/testing/contrib/], for example [http://download.videolan.org/pub/testing/contrib/contrib-20091114-wince-bin-gcc-4.1.0-runtime-3.15.2-only.tar.bz2 contrib-20091114-wince-bin-gcc-4.1.0-runtime-3.15.2-only.tar.bz2]. Uncompress them in <code>/usr/wince</code>

== Configuration ==

You need to tweak your configure line.

<tt>./configure</tt> is used to check whether your system is able to compile VLC.
Also you choose the functionalities of your build.
 % ./configure --help
will show you the various options

Create a new file named conf-vlc.sh and add in it:

 PATH=/opt/mingw32ce/bin:$PATH \
 CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/wince/include -D_WIN32_WCE=0x0500" \
 LDFLAGS="-L/usr/wince/lib" \
 PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR=/usr/wince/lib/pkgconfig \
 ./configure --host=arm-mingw32ce --enable-optimize-memory \
             --disable-directx --disable-dvdnav --disable-libgcrypt \
             --disable-mad --disable-remoteosd --disable-sdl --disable-skins2

You will probably want to add more options like <code>--disable-sout --disable-httpd --disable-vlm</code> to remove stuff that you won't need if your device is limited in storage space and memory.

Save the file and make it executable:
 % chmod u+x conf-vlc.sh

== Compiling source code ==
Now run your configuration script and build VLC:
 % ./conf-vlc.sh
 % make

== Creating self contained packages ==

Once the compilation is done, you can build self-contained VLC packages with the following command:

 make package-wince

This will create a vlc-x.x.x.zip archive. Transfer it on your device, uncompress it and enjoy!

There is not (yet) an option to build a .cab file.

= Using and Debugging VLC =

== Interacting with your device ==

Use [http://www.synce.org SynCE] to synchronize your device with Linux. Or find an Windows machine with ActiveSync installed and download your fresh new VLC build.

== Debugging VLC ==

CeGCC provides a stub for GDB to permit remote debugging on Windows CE. To use it, go in the vlc folder:
 % cd vlc-1.0.0
 % arm-mingw32ce-gdb vlc.exe

This GDB will upload vlc.exe to /gdb/ on the device. Make sure you uploaded all the VLC directory on your device.

Then, follow the [http://cegcc.sourceforge.net/docs/debugging.html demo of a debugging session] for Windows CE.

== Known issues ==

* There is '''no usable GUI''' for WinCE. There used to be a WinCE GUI module up to the 1.0 branch, however, it was unmaintained and badly broken, so it was removed in the 1.1 branch. Yes, not having a GUI makes VLC pretty useless, so contributions from developers are badly welcome.
*: The diffs in which the WinCE GUI was removed are [http://repo.or.cz/w/vlc.git/commitdiff/745cf118bbab187333d581b692f93cd4ca2da898 this one] and [http://repo.or.cz/w/vlc.git/commitdiff/ba2736f415a73cc336663387e2d3b9225635a8e9 this one]. The module may compile, load and show up when you launch VLC, but it doesn't work (clicking on buttons doesn't do anything etc).

* When launching VLC, if you get an error saying "<code>vlc.exe is not a valid PocketPC application</code>" (and you use Windows Mobile 6.1), read [http://cegcc.sourceforge.net/docs/faq.html#DllDoesNotWorkWithWindowsMobile6.1 this] and set up your registry accordingly (yes, that's one entry for <code>libvlc.dll</code>, one for <code>libvlccore.dll</code>, and one for every DLL in the plugins directory; good luck).

* If an error message appears about missing DLLs, it might be due to mingw32ce dynamically linking against libgcc. The build system of VLC doesn't fetch and include this library when it creates the package, which is why it is missing. Try looking for <code>libgcc*.dll</code> files in <code>/opt/mingw32ce</code> and copying them in the directory where you extracted VLC. For the same reason, some C++ plugins might refuse to load due to a missing libstdc++ DLL, so you'll want to copy <code>libstdc++-6.0.dll</code> onto your device too.

* Up to Windows CE 5.0, the memory model limits each process to 32 MB of virtual address space. If you compiled VLC with too many plugins, they will quickly fill up those 32 MB, which leads too missing features, or VLC simply freezing. In any case, check the <code>vlc-log.txt</code> file in the root directory for <code>Error 14</code> logs. If you find some, you can try reducing the memory footprint of VLC by disabling some modules during the <code>./configure</code> and/or removing them from the plugins directory. In my experience, VLC can load a maximum of roughly 16 MB of plugins.

* If the colors are wrong when playing a video (red and blue swapped), try removing the libswscale plugin.


See also [[WindowsCE]]
[[Category:Building]]