MythTV
is a Free Open Source software digital video recorder (DVR) project distributed
under the terms of the GNU GPL.
Custom made MythTV Systems
Let us build you a dedicated MythTV system...
We supply complete, fully configured, ready to use MythTV systems for a variety
of configurations based upon our own MythTV extensions.
These are ready to use, turnkey systems that launch directly into
MythTV - no messing with Linux or Windows. They come with an integral drive
for PVR functionality, a DVD or BluRay drive and an infrared remote control.
Ready to connect to an aerial or satellite dish and a digital ready screen.
Simple installation and setup.
Click here for details
MythTV on Windows
We love MythTV and use it to view live and time slipped TV, to watch recorded
video and to listen to music. We have several Linux boxes on a local network
running MythTV. But recently I was asked if I couldn't get a frontend up
on a Windows box too. No amount of evangelical zeal could persuade a change
of OS so I reluctantly agreed to research it...
Although MythTV was primarily designed to run on Linux, it has been 'ported' to
run on other OS’s such as Windows and Mac OS. There are pre-built standard
releases available from
MythTV on Windows
and there's a
MythTV wiki
page on building MythTV on a Windows box but there's nothing written about cross
compiling from Linux to Windows. So I wrote this guide.
NB the tools and method described below can also be used to build MythTV
natively on Windows or Linux too:
Cross compiling Linux to Windows
There's a lot of compiling to do so you'll need a fast, fat Linux box:
- At least 10 GB free space on a fast disk.
- At least 2 GB, preferably 4 GB physical memory.
- A recent multi-core CPU; or lots of patience.
- A fast internet connection >= 2 MB/s.
In summary, you'll need to:
- Install a recent
mingw32 cross compiler.
- Download our build script.
- Extract and run the build script which will in turn download, patch and
compile a number of libraries and MythTV sources to produce the MythTV
programs, libraries and installer.
So you'll need to be happy with the Linux command line, the C/C++ language,
make and shell scripts.
The first step is to build or install the cross compiler; in this
case gcc. Gcc is well equipped for cross compilation, there being many
target systems to choose from in the distributed sources. Fortunately
many have trodden this path before and there already exists the
mingw32 compiler.
Mingw32 is a gcc compiler and
runtime library primarily used to build native Windows apps on a Windows host
but can also be used to cross compile. Some Linux distributions, like Ubuntu,
provide packaged versions of the compiler. So the first significant step is to
install mingw32.
Installing the Mingw32 cross compiler
On an Ubuntu or Debian distribution at a terminal type:
sudo apt-get install mingw32
If your distribution doesn't provide a pre-built package then you can build it using
this script
provided by Mingw.
Compiler cache and compiler farming
Because of the volume of files to be compiled it is recommended that
compiler cache (ccache) is installed. If you have several networked
systems then compiler farming (distcc) can be beneficial too.
On an Ubuntu or Debian distribution at a terminal type:
sudo apt-get install ccache distcc
The reader is referred to 'man ccache' and 'man distcc' for configuration
and operational guides.
Download the build script
It is highly recommended that you download
this build script to
automate the build process. If you want to do the build manually then
look at the Step by step guide first and use the
'.diff' files from the
latest patches
as a guide to making the necessary changes.
At a terminal type:
wget http://www.softsystem.co.uk/download/mythtv/mythbuild-CURRENT.zip
unzip mythbuild-CURRENT.zip
chmod +x mythbuild.sh
NB the script and patches were designed to build MythTV 0.24, released on 11 Nov 2010,
but will also build MythTV 0.23.1 and the current git master (v0.25pre-1070-g9590973).
Using the build script
At a terminal enter:
./mythbuild.sh -h
to list the options available for the build process.
To start the build simply type:
./mythbuild.sh
The script will display the type of build selected and prompt you to
continue. Pressing return will start the process of downloads and builds which
can take some time - around 30-60 minutes on recent multi core systems.
Hopefully everything built OK and we ended up with an installation archive.
If not then follow the Step by step guide to
resolve the problem.
Running MythTV for Windows
Now that we have built MythTV we're anxious to try it. We have 3 choices:
- With Wine on a Linux or Mac system. more...
- With VirtualBox on a Linux, Mac or Windows system. more...
- On a real Windows system. more...
For testing out patches and new features Wine is easiest. All the major MythTV
components work with Wine. Click
here to read more.
For testing Windows compatibility then VirtualBox comes into its own. It's
simple to have a number of canned Windows systems ready to run and it's
easy to re-start from known configurations. Click
here to read more.
Ultimately the intent is to run on real hardware. Click
here to read more.
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