Re: [Gnash-dev] Help with building a XPI

[Sylvain Beucler]

On Mon, Apr 06, 2009 at 08:16:21AM -0600, Rob Savoye wrote:
> Sylvain Beucler wrote:
> 
> > Since they don't know about compilation I'm trying to offer them Gnash
> > binaries (they are running Debian).
> 
>   There should be snapshots in .deb format (x86) on getgnash.org.

Yes, though there are missing in 'releases/'.

The other day, I installed my packages from http://gnash.cliss21.com/
on a Lenny box, and it made Firefox 3 crash, so I'm trying to minimize
the unsafe factors - so no snapshots :p


Btw, the binaries would be even more useful with a:
  apt-get install apt-ftparchives
  cd /packages/snapshots/debian/lenny/
  apt-ftparchives packages . | gzip > Packages.gz
so they can be used in sources.list:
  deb http:///packages/snapshots/debian/lenny/ ./

Similarly for Fedora you could also use 'createrepo .'.

That's what I use for GNU FreeDink:
http://www.freedink.org/releases/debian/Makefile
http://www.freedink.org/releases/fedora/Makefile


> > In the past I've helped with Gnash backports(.org) but this is still
> > too complex, firstly because it requires editing sources.list,
> 
>   I thought an up to date Gnash 0.8.5 was in the "experimental" repository.

It's a pre-release version from February, and as you mentioned, it's
in experimental, so it's not meant to be installed on Etch or Lenny,
and it's non-trivial to setup.

The current bug for 0.8.5 packaging is
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=518265


> > So I'd like to experiment with the XPI solution that was mentioned at
> > gnashdev.org a while ago.  However I don't know at all where to start!
> > do you have advice or documentation about it?  How did you compile the
> > latest .xpi?
> 
>   "make xpi". :-) it basically builds gnash with all the internal
> libraries statically linked. Then you do a "make xpi-bundle", and it
> recompiles the plugin to be dynamically linked (cause it has to), and
> makes the xpi package. It'll install just fine, but if you have an
> problems with the XPCOM support not finding the executable in the users
> profile directory, set "GNASH_PLAYER" so it'll find it.

Thanks, I'll try that :)


Hmm, it complains about a missing prerelease directory:

make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/gnash-0.8.5/testsuite'
find gnash-0.8.5 -type d ! -perm -777 -exec chmod a+rwx {} \; -o \
          ! -type d ! -perm -444 -links 1 -exec chmod a+r {} \; -o \
          ! -type d ! -perm -400 -exec chmod a+r {} \; -o \
          ! -type d ! -perm -444 -exec /bin/sh /usr/src/gnash-0.8.5/install-sh 
-c -m a+r {} {} \; \
        || chmod -R a+r gnash-0.8.5
mv: cannot stat `gnash-prerelease': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `gnash-prerelease_20090406/configure.ac': No such file or 
directory
/bin/sh: line 10: gnash-prerelease_20090406/configure.ac: No such file or 
directory
/bin/sh: line 12: cd: gnash-prerelease_20090406: No such file or directory
Running libtoolize 1.5.26 --force --copy  --ltdl ...
You should update your `aclocal.m4' by running aclocal.
ls: cannot access libltdl/*: No such file or directory
libtoolize: cannot list files in `/usr/share/libtool/libltdl'

**Error**: libtoolize failed, do you have libtool and libltdl3-dev packages 
installed?
tar: gnash-prerelease_20090406: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
...

How is it meant to be used?
I just used:
  ./configure --enable-gui=gtk --enable-renderer=agg
  make xpi


I see that packaging/debian/ is also missing in the tarball when
running 'make deb' - I guess all this only works with snapshots and/or
bzr checkouts?


> > (Btw, I read somewhere that there's patents issues with distributing
> > such binaries: I don't have this problem because I live in Europe.)
> 
>   That would only be if you statically linked in ffmpeg, which nobody
> does. Gnash itself is patent free, but the codecs are not.

Reading videos with Gnash is one of my goals. To make the XPI as
cross-distro as possible, I guess I have to statically link it too.

-- 
Sylvain