Compiling the MythTV on PS3

[Kirk.P...@gmail.com]

I got permission from Theodore Murdock to repost his email to me on
this subject:
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I'm not sure whether any changes are necessary to MythTV itself...I
know there are versions available for Mac/PPC, so it's possible that
Linux/PPC support is already built in...though I have seen postings
that not every new version of MythTV is PPC compatible when first
released...I just came across that info recently, so I haven't had time
to check whether the version I'm compiling (the .20 tarball) is
compatible or not.

I'm runing Yellow Dog Linux on my PS3, and I've been working on
compiling MythTV for several days, but haven't got it to complete
yet...if anyone else wants to try, the first thing to do is to fix the
repo files in /etc/yum.repos.d/ ...the main repository lines are
commented out in each of the three files found there, delete the #
marks to fix them.

After that, you'll need to install all the build dependencies for
MythTV...so far I've added qt-devel, libXv-devel, libXvMC-devel,
libXxf86vm-devel, and libXmu-devel due to complaints from the linker.
The binaries of all of those except XvMC were already installed (since
there aren't any proprietary drivers available for the PS3 video card,
I'm guessing XvMC won't be able to do hardware decoding on the PS3
unless or until we get some...I'm still hoping to be proved wrong on
that though).

The current error message that I'm getting from the linker is a bit
concerning, though, as I'm not sure I'll be able to fix it...it seems
to be complaining about not having some XvMC related headers that I
would think should have been installed with XvMC-devel...here's the
output, if anyone can shed some light on it...

g++ -o mythfrontend version.o main.o manualbox.o playbackbox.o
viewscheduled.o globalsettings.o manualschedule.o programrecpriority.o
channelrecpriority.o stat usbox.o networkcontrol.o moc_manualbox.o
moc_playbackbox.o moc_viewscheduled.o m oc_manualschedule.o
moc_programrecpriority.o moc_channelrecpriority.o moc_status box.o
moc_networkcontrol.o -L/usr/lib/qt-3.3/lib -L../../libs/libmyth
-L../../ libs/libmythtv -L../../libs/libavutil -L../../libs/libavcodec
-L../../libs/libav format -L../../libs/libmythfreemheg
-L../../libs/libmythui -L../../libs/libmythu pnp
-L../../libs/libmythlivemedia -lmythtv-0.20 -lmythavformat-0.20
-lmythavutil -0.20 -lmythavcodec-0.20 -lmythfreemheg-0.20
-lmythupnp-0.20 -lmythlivemedia-0.2 0 -lmyth-0.20 -lmythui-0.20
-lfreetype -lmp3lame -lasound -lXinerama -lXv -lXxf8 6vm -lXrandr
-lqt-mt -lGLU -lGL -lXmu -lXext -lX11 -lm -lpthread
../../libs/libavcodec/libmythavcodec-0.20.so: undefined reference to
`XvMCLoadQM atrix'
../../libs/libavcodec/libmythavcodec-0.20.so: undefined reference to
`XvMCSyncSu rface'
../../libs/libavcodec/libmythavcodec-0.20.so: undefined reference to
`XVMC_field _start'
../../libs/libavcodec/libmythavcodec-0.20.so: undefined reference to
`XvMCFlushS urface'
../../libs/libavcodec/libmythavcodec-0.20.so: undefined reference to
`XvMCBeginS urface'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [mythfrontend] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/root/mythtv-0.20/programs/mythfrontend'
make[1]: *** [sub-mythfrontend] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/root/mythtv-0.20/programs'
make: *** [sub-programs] Error 2

[Kirk.P...@gmail.com]

Also from Theodore Murdock:

I suppose I should also mention that anyone who wants to compile MythTV
also *must* use --enable-proc-opt

If you don't, MythTV will try to compile for a generic x86 processor,
--enable-proc-opt allows it to compile for a specific processor
architecture, which is something we need when we're compiling for PPC.

[Theodore Murdock]

Well, I actually got it to successfully compile on my latest attempt,
after adding --enable-xvmc to my configure options (the linker was
complaining about not finding xvmc related files before, I'm wondering
if this means it's impossible to compile MythTV 0.20 without XvMC being
enabled...I still haven't convinced it to connect to the backend, so
there's probably still something wrong.

When I launch mythfrontend from the command prompt, it complains for a
while about not finding any configuration info (afaik this is normal on
a frontend-only install), then asks me how to connect to the
backend...after I tell it how, it exits with an error message...which
means more work trying to sort it out tomorrow.

[Kirk Smith]

What's the error message .. my normal x86 Myth setup started having problems when I upgraded to 0.20.
I believe the MythTV page states there is a protocol change (front and backend must have same protocol version to work).
So I was getting a  "server has wrong version number" .. or something similar.

[Kirk Smith]

you should check out the updated comments to the post
http://ps3penguins.blogspot.com/2007/01/compiling-mythtv-on-ps3-use-enable-proc.html

Another user points to the problems compiling XvMC.

[Theodore Murdock]

First I get a whole bunch of error messages about not being able to
connect to the database...here's a sample:
2007-01-10 17:08:56.981 Database not open while trying to load setting:
HideMouseCursor
2007-01-10 17:08:56.981 Unable to connect to database!
2007-01-10 17:08:56.981 No error type from QSqlError? Strange...
2007-01-10 17:08:57.037 DB Error (KickDatabase):
Query was:
SELECT NULL;
No error type from QSqlError? Strange...

...then the configuration screen comes up, and asks me what language to
use...apparently (for whatever reason) what language to use is stored
in the sql database on the backend, since the error log complains about
not being able to save the language setting to the database. I then get
asked to input the information about the location of the backend, and I
give it my backend's IP, the SQL database name and username/password.
After choosing "finish" from the second page of the setup, I get more
"connecting to database" errors similar to the above (based on the
timestamp, they're not from before I configure the settings), followed
by the line "Failed to init MythContext, exiting."

The odd thing is that it seems to decide very quickly that it can't
connect to the database, there's no time spent waiting for the network
to respond, so it's either getting a hostile response from my backend
very quickly, or isn't actually looking on the network at all...I have
no idea what needs to be done to make the database connection work,
since I don't have any expierience with MySQL. I also have no idea what
firewall(s) might be getting in the way on YDL or on my Ubuntu (Edgy)
backend...or whether there could be some kind of SQL version/flavor
conflict between the two.

[Kirk Smith]

Hmm ... this is clearly a connect to MySQL issue.  The error I was referring to, wouldn't have happened until you try and stream the data (watch a show). I suppose its possible your version of MySQL client that was compiled isn't compatible with the MySQL on your backend server.  Did you load the Myth Web interface? .. you might try using the web page interface to talk to the backend from the front end .. and see if it talks to the MySQL DB ok ... or setup a web server and a phpmyadmin on the PS3 .. then see if it can connect to the MySQL .. that will test if the compilied MySQL client libraries on the PS3 are working.

[RedMarine]

http://ps3.qj.net/MythTV-on-your-PS3/pg/49/aid/79651

Quoted Text from PS3.QJ.NET

"It was only a matter of time before someone tried a USB TV Tuner and
successfully put together a working set of drivers for it. And that
someone would be Takeshi Yaegashi who has been successful in patching
the Plextor ConvertX PX-M402U's Linux drivers to work properly on the
PS3. The problem was that the original GO7007 Video4Linux2 drivers
didn't run properly on a 32bit userland/64bit kernel environment.

The released patches will patch the GO7007 Video4Linux2 drivers and the
Addon CD to improve compatibility with the said environment, which is
common on all PS3 Linux distros. What you'll have to do is patch the
drivers, then patch the Addon CD file and finally compile the kernel
given in the Addon CD. If this sounds a bit difficult, you can wait for
distros to appear with this patches built in.

I would expect Gentoo to be the first with the patches, seeing how
they're already thinking of including MythTV on the Gentoo Live CD. If
you do understand the consequences and want to go ahead with this,
download the patches, the new Addon CD, patch both of them, and then
use the new customised kernel with your distro. Expect a thorough
how-to soon!"

[Kirk Smith]

Great Link ... Thanks again!