Building LinuxMCE 0804

With this tutorial I'll try to summarize the step involved in building the LinuxMCE CDs and DVDs together with some changes that I've done when switching from Kubuntu 0704 to Kubuntu 0710.

Requirements

Requirements:

• Powerful enough system to do the compilation and building of packages as is a cpu intensive task and it can take quite a long time.
• Lot of disk space, at least 40G hard drive.
• A working internet connection as the build and preparation process will need to access get some files from the public domain.

First Steps:

• Install Kubuntu 0804. I use the desktop installation CD and i would recommend to do the same as this steps will consider this kind of installation performed. Of course an Ubuntu Server or Alternate CD will work too but you may need to install some build dependencies / runtime libraries that I have by default installed on Kubuntu 0804.
• Install some subversion so you can checkout a copy of the build script from LinuxMCE's svn.

apt-get install subversion

Build Scripts

The next step after having 0804 installed is to get a copy of the build script:

sudo su
cd $HOME
svn co http://svn.linuxmce.com/pluto/trunk/src/Ubuntu_Helpers_NoHardcode/
mv Ubuntu_Helpers_NoHardcode/ /usr/local/lmce-build

I will try to explain them quickly so you'll know what each of them does.

build.sh

This is the main script and calls all the other script of the build process to perform simple task.

loop-build.sh

This is a script used on our build machines and it does the next steps in a infinite loop:

1. Calls build.sh script to performa a build.
2. Stores the build output in a ftp viewable directory.
3. Sends mail to developers on fail and on success.

Scripts used for preaparing the build system

prepare-scripts/install-build-pkgs.sh

This script will download and install all the build dependencies needed to create the linuxmce packages.

prepare-scripts/cd1-prepare.sh

Download the ubuntu packages that will be copied on LinuxMCE CD1

prepare-scripts/cd2-packages.sh

Download the ubuntu packages that will be copied on LinuxMCE CD2

prepare-scripts/create-diskless-debootstrap.sh

Creates a debootsrap image used later as a base for creating the diskless image.

prepare-script/import-external-files.sh

Downloads the linuxmce media file : skins, demo videos ..

prepare-script/preseed-build-pkgs.sh

It was used to preseed some src packages like lirc-module so that they will build in a non interactive mode by the build process. It is not used for 0804.

Scripts used for building CDs

build-scripts/checkout-svn.sh

Gets a updated copy of the source tree from svn and stores it in /var/lmce-build/svn/

build-script/import-win32bins.sh

Copies the latest windows binaries from the linuxmce ftp

buils-script/build-replacements.sh

Creates a set of non-linuxmce-specific deb packages which don't usually come with Ubuntu but are needed by our applications. It may also build some packages that are already in Ubuntu but are patched and needs to be repacked. The sources for this debs are located in trunk/ubuntu directory of the svn this means /var/lmce-build/svn/trunk/ubuntu on your local machine (after the svn checkout). Moust of this sources are in a deb-src format. The created debs will be stored in /var/lmce-build/replacements/ directory.

build-script/build-makerelease.sh

Build a c++ linuxmce application and it's dependencies from the linuxmce svn. This application, called MakeRelease it's used to build and pack all the linuxmce packages. The output files will be stored in /var/lmce-build/MakeRelease/ when the script finishes.

build-script/import-database.sh

This script takes the latest version of the LinuxMCE MySQL databases from the LinuxMCE server. The information from this databases is used by MakeRelease to build and compile the software. The databases will also be used to create some sqldumps that will be packaged on the LinuxMCE CDs and DVSs that are created.

build-scripts/build-maindebs.sh

Runs MakeRelease and based on the information from the database compiles and packs the linuxmce packages using the sources stored in /var/lmce-build/svn. The created debs will be stored in /var/lmce-build/out/tmp directory.

build-scripts/get-closed-source-debs.sh

Download the latest pluto debs which are build on a remote server. This debs are compiled from source which are object of some Pluto NDAs and cannot be made public (ex: pluto-zwave).

build-script/create-repo.sh

After all the needed packages are created / downloaded, this script copies them from their output directories and stores them in /var/www/ directory. It also creates a Packages.gz file so you can use that directory as a repository which you can add in sources.list.

build-script/cd1-build.sh

Creates LinuxMCE CD1. This cd will contain moust of the linuxmce specific debs but also some Ubuntu debs which are needed for by LinuxMCE application and are not installed by default in Kubuntu. The linuxmce debs are copied from /var/www' and the extra ubuntu debs are fetched from /var/lmce-build/cd1-packages/ directory.

build-scripts/cd2-build.sh

Creates LinuxMCE CD2. This cd contains only few linuxmce debs and a lot of ubuntu debs which are not installed by default on a Kubuntu system but are needed douring the install process. The Ubuntu debs are copied from /var/lmce-build/cd2-packages/ folder.

Scripts used for building DVDs

vmware-install/install_in_vmware.sh

This script uses the LinuxMCE CD1&2 to automatically install LinuxMCE on a clean Kubuntu system. All the installation takes place in vmware virtual machine and at the end of the installation the script will create a tar.gz image of the vmware disk directory structure. This tar.gz image will be used for creating the dvd image.

build-dvd/build-cd.sh

This script takes the tar.gz image created by the install_in_vmware.sh script and generates the bootable dvd image. For generating the bootable dvd image this script also needs

• The content of a striped squashfs image found on the Kubuntu CD : /var/lmce-build/lite-installer/ubuntu-squashfs-base.tgz
• The content of a Kubuntu CD without the squashfs file: /var/lmce-build/lite-installer/ubutu-livecd.tgz