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Hi all. I spent some time yesterday trying to compile VLC 1.2 on my Windows XP machine. I used the VLC 2.0.3 source tar and followed the guide in http://wiki.videolan.org/Win32CompileMSYS, but still ran into several issues. After much debugging, I managed to get it working on my machine. I want to update the wiki with "correct" instructions, but I'd like someone else to review, especially since this is an area in which I am admittedly inexperienced.

I list all issues below. If anyone can confirm/correct, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

• "make prebuilt" fails with tar error

According to the wiki, this is normal. I'm just listing it here b/c of the next issues.

• "stat" errors for i586-pc-something

This looks like a typo. Instead of "i586-pc-something", it should be "i586-mingw32msvc". I will update this accordingly.

There is one thing I want to confirm though. After the above executes, the contrib directory will be C:\msys\1.0\home\gnosygnu\vlc\contrib\i586-mingw32msvc. This differs from 1.1 wherein the contrib directory ended up in C:\msys\1.0\win32.

• "change_prefix.sh" reports Permission denied error

This appears to be harmless. The script continues to execute afterwards. Note for others: there will be no status updates for a few minutes, so it may appear frozen. Don't Ctrl-Break.

• "Bootstrap" section fails for "cp -v /usr/win32/share/aclocal/* m4/"

This may be a relic from the 1.1 process. I don't have a win32 directory (C:\msys\1.0\win32 does not exist). I believe this line should be removed.

• "Bootstrap" section omits "bootstrap"

This may be obvious to others, but there should be a 4th line in the "Bootstrap" section that explicitly says to run "bootstrap". Otherwise the configure process will fail.

• configure fails with "Could not find lua"

This took me a while to figure out, and I'm not sure if it is correct. I tried to do disable-lua, but then ended up running into errors with live555 and mad. I added --disable-live555 and --disable-mad, but then got libfaad errors.

Eventually I realized that it was not seeing my contribs. As I indicated above, they are in C:\msys\1.0\home\gnosygnu\vlc\contrib\i586-mingw32msvc. In order for configure to pick up the location, I added a --with-contrib=contrib/i586-mingw32msvc configure then completed without any errors.

• make fails b/c of missing libpng files

There were no libpng.la or libpng.a files, but there were libpng15.la and libpng15.a ones. I copied these files and renamed them accordingly and was able to proceed.

• make fails b/c of missing commands for moc, rcc, uic

I sequentially got each of the above after running "PATH=/usr/win32/bin:$PATH make". I resolved each by copying the corresponding command.exe from the contrib directory to my bin directory Again, this may be an issue with how the contribs were set up above.

• make fails with compile error in gui/qt with "expected unqualified-id before 'char'"

After some searching I found the following thread, viewtopic.php?f=14&t=102257. SENCO's suggestion works on my machine.
Explicitly, I did the following
- opened up C:\msys\1.0\home\gnosygnu\vlc\include\vlc_windows_interfaces.h
- added "#undef small" on a new line directly underneath "#include <objbase.h>"

• make package-win32-base does not exist

I checked the Makefile and there is no rule. I ended up running package-win32-exe

• make package-win32-exe fails due to misssing commands for git, svn, makensis

I copied the git.exe from my Git installation to C:\msys\1.0\bin\. For svn, I copied over the entire bin folder from http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/branches/1.7.x/CHANGES.
For makensis I got tired and ended up commenting the lines in Makefile

This looks like a typo. Instead of "i586-pc-something", it should be "i586-mingw32msvc". I will update this accordingly.

i586-mingw32msvc is a i586-pc-something

There is one thing I want to confirm though. After the above executes, the contrib directory will be C:\msys\1.0\home\gnosygnu\vlc\contrib\i586-mingw32msvc. This differs from 1.1 wherein the contrib directory ended up in C:\msys\1.0\win32.

Indeed, this allows one contrib per VLC version.

• "Bootstrap" section fails for "cp -v /usr/win32/share/aclocal/* m4/"

Code: Select all

cp: cannot stat `/usr/win32/share/aclocal/*': No such file or directory

This may be a relic from the 1.1 process. I don't have a win32 directory (C:\msys\1.0\win32 does not exist). I believe this line should be removed.

Probably.

• "Bootstrap" section omits "bootstrap"

This may be obvious to others, but there should be a 4th line in the "Bootstrap" section that explicitly says to run "bootstrap". Otherwise the configure process will fail.

Yes.

• configure fails with "Could not find lua"

Code: Select all

configure: error: Could not find lua. Lua is needed for some interfaces (rc, telnet, http) as well as many other custom scripts. Use --disable-lua to ignore this error.

This took me a while to figure out, and I'm not sure if it is correct. I tried to do disable-lua, but then ended up running into errors with live555 and mad. I added --disable-live555 and --disable-mad, but then got libfaad errors.

Eventually I realized that it was not seeing my contribs. As I indicated above, they are in C:\msys\1.0\home\gnosygnu\vlc\contrib\i586-mingw32msvc. In order for configure to pick up the location, I added a --with-contrib=contrib/i586-mingw32msvc

Code: Select all

sh extras/package/win32/configure.sh --host=i586-pc-mingw32msvc --with-contrib=contrib/i586-mingw32msvc --disable-nls

configure then completed without any errors.

This is not normal. it works for me. But feel free to update the wiki.

• make fails b/c of missing libpng files

Code: Select all

/bin/sed: can't read /home/gnosygnu/vlc/contrib/i586-mingw32msvc/lib/libpng.la: No such file or directory libtool: link: `/home/gnosygnu/vlc/contrib/i586-mingw32msvc/lib/libpng.la' is not a valid libtool archive

There were no libpng.la or libpng.a files, but there were libpng15.la and libpng15.a ones. I copied these files and renamed them accordingly and was able to proceed.

• make fails b/c of missing commands for moc, rcc, uic

Code: Select all

/bin/sh: moc: command not found make[5]: *** [main_interface.moc.cpp] Error 127 /bin/sh: rcc: command not found make[5]: *** [resources.cpp] Error 127 /bin/sh: uic: command not found make[5]: *** [ui/equalizer.h] Error 127

I sequentially got each of the above after running "PATH=/usr/win32/bin:$PATH make". I resolved each by copying the corresponding command.exe from the contrib directory to my bin directory

Code: Select all

source: C:\msys\1.0\home\gnosygnu\vlc\contrib\i586-mingw32msvc\moc.exe target: C:\msys\1.0\bin\moc.exe

Again, this may be an issue with how the contribs were set up above.

No, this should just work and take moc from contribs/.../bin/

• make fails with compile error in gui/qt with "expected unqualified-id before 'char'"

Code: Select all

In file included from dialogs_provider.cpp:42:0: dialogs/preferences.hpp: At global scope: dialogs/preferences.hpp:72:19: error: expected unqualified-id before 'char' dialogs/preferences.hpp:72:18: error: expected ';' at end of member declaration dialogs/preferences.hpp:72:24: error: expected unqualified-id before ',' token

After some searching I found the following thread, viewtopic.php?f=14&t=102257. SENCO's suggestion works on my machine.
Explicitly, I did the following
- opened up C:\msys\1.0\home\gnosygnu\vlc\include\vlc_windows_interfaces.h
- added "#undef small" on a new line directly underneath "#include <objbase.h>"

Yep.

• make package-win32-base does not exist

Code: Select all

make: *** No rule to make target `package-win32-base'. Stop.

I checked the Makefile and there is no rule. I ended up running package-win32-exe

or make package-win-base or -common

Okay. Thanks for the confirmation. I agree with your points above. However, I do want to expand on the following:

In order for configure to pick up the location, I added a --with-contrib=contrib/i586-mingw32msvc

Code: Select all

sh extras/package/win32/configure.sh --host=i586-pc-mingw32msvc --with-contrib=contrib/i586-mingw32msvc --disable-nls

Again, this may be an issue with how the contribs were set up above.

This is not normal. it works for me. But feel free to update the wiki.

I was able to repeat it though. I deleted my old 1.1 installation and finally got 1.2 working by doing the above. Then I deleted 1.2 again and walked through the steps before starting this thread.

The only thing I can think of is that I used a non-standard path location for my installation. Instead of C:\msys\1.0, I used something like C:\dev\msys\1.0. If I do it a 3rd time, I'll try again with C:\msys\1.0.

At any rate, I made some minor changes to the main Win32CompileMSYSNew and dumped the rest of the detail in Win32CompileMSYSTroubleShooting. Hopefully it will help someone else.

Thanks again for the help.

Cool.