Login at Kodi Home

jcea · 2017-09-09, 21:49

I plan to do some contributions to Kodi. First step is to be able to compile it locally.

I am following http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Compile_XBMC_for_Ubuntu

I am doing it in a Ubuntu 16.04 machine.

Some mistakes:

Docs say:

Code:
cd $HOME/xbmc/

./bootstrap

./configure

But "bootstrap" actually is in "xbmc/tools/depends". This should be updated.

After doing the "bootstrap" and the "configure" steps in the right directory, I do "make" (inside "xbmc/tools/depends" directory). After quite a long time of compilations and dependencies automatic downloads, I get this error:

Quote:[ 87%] Linking C executable plutil
cd /home/jcea/xbmc/xbmc/tools/depends/target/libplist/x86_64-linux-gnu-debug/build/plutil && /home/jcea/xbmc/z/x86_64-linux-gnu-native/bin/cmake -E cmake_link_script CMakeFiles/plutil.dir/link.txt --verbose=1
/usr/bin/gcc -fPIC -DPIC -Og -g -D_DEBUG -isystem /home/jcea/xbmc/z/x86_64-linux-gnu-debug/include -fvisibility=default -L/home/jcea/xbmc/z/x86_64-linux-gnu-debug/lib CMakeFiles/plutil.dir/plutil.c.o -o plutil-1.6 -rdynamic ../src/libplist.so.1.1.6 -Wl,-Bstatic -lxml2 -Wl,-Bdynamic -lz -lm -Wl,-rpath,/home/jcea/xbmc/xbmc/tools/depends/target/libplist/x86_64-linux-gnu-debug/build/src:
../src/libplist.so.1.1.6: undefined reference to `lzma_properties_decode'
../src/libplist.so.1.1.6: undefined reference to `lzma_end'
../src/libplist.so.1.1.6: undefined reference to `lzma_auto_decoder'
../src/libplist.so.1.1.6: undefined reference to `lzma_code'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

I have installed all dependencies listed in the wiki page.

I don't know how to proceed. What to do now?. Could you possibly correct the compilation guide?.

PS: The only "funny" thing in my compilation environment is that I have "ccache" installed.

**Karellen** · 2017-09-09, 23:23

Hi jcea

Great to hear that you will be making some contributions to Kodi.

As for the wiki, yes a lot of pages are falling behind unfortunately. This is the result of the entire project being voluntary and community driven in nature. There is no-one paid to write the wiki, it is just a collaboration of the members of Kodi community that write and amend it. Sadly, that is not happening as much as we had hoped. And the wiki is quite large... 12,650 pages as of a few moments ago, so an impossible task for the 7 members that actively work on the wiki in their free time.

Over the years our member base seems to have shifted slightly from real enthusiasts willing to help out (of which we still have a fair amount), to members that demand help with their own problems and give nothing back to the community.

You are exactly the type of person that could help it. You are knowledgeable on the subject, and you have already spotted the errors. Can we ask you to create a wiki account and update the page?

**wsnipex** · 2017-09-10, 09:48

the wiki hasn't been updated for kodi v18 yet, it refers to the current stable v17.
The kodi source always has currents docs: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/master...DME.ubuntu

**Rechi** · (This post was last modified: 2017-09-10, 09:49 by Rechi.)

Wiki article is outdated, follow the instructions at https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/master...DME.ubuntu.

jcea · 2017-09-10, 12:59

I see... Having the same documentation in several places is a pain and bad documentation is worse than no documentation. I would suggest to change the WIKI to point to the github repository, ideally, a link to each KODI release build instructions.

Anyway, following the manual in github I have another error at the very beginning:

"""
jcea@jcea:~/xbmc/xbmc/BUILD$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/jcea/xbmc/z/
[...]
CMake Error at cmake/modules/FindRapidJSON.cmake:63 (find_package):
Could not find a package configuration file provided by "RapidJSON"
(requested version 1.1.0) with any of the following names:

RapidJSONConfig.cmake
rapidjson-config.cmake

Add the installation prefix of "RapidJSON" to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH or set
"RapidJSON_DIR" to a directory containing one of the above files. If
"RapidJSON" provides a separate development package or SDK, be sure it has
been installed.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
cmake/scripts/common/Macros.cmake:340 (find_package)
CMakeLists.txt:166 (core_require_dep)

-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

jcea@jcea:~/xbmc/xbmc/BUILD$ sudo apt-get install rapidjson-dev
[...]
rapidjson-dev is already the newest version (0.12~git20141031-3).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
"""

What now?.

**Karellen** · 2017-09-10, 22:36

I know little about this wiki page. If instructions are elsewhere, then is this wiki page required?

Should we just blank the page and put a link to github instead?

**Rechi** · 2017-09-11, 09:03

Install rapidjson from team-xbmc/xbmc-ppa-build-depends ppa.

jcea · 2017-09-11, 16:17

@Rechi, I will try. I was just following the instructions about manual dependencies install. They don't work as written.

**wsnipex** · 2017-09-11, 16:55

the instructions work if followed correctly.

jcea · (This post was last modified: 2017-09-12, 00:16 by jcea.)

@wsnipex, I followed the recipe carefully. I opted for the "manual install of dependencies" option.

**wsnipex** · 2017-09-12, 08:38

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/master...ubuntu#L94

jcea · 2017-09-12, 12:06

@wsnipex, I already have rapidjson-dev installed. Check message #5 in this thread.

I am running Ubuntu 16.04 and I already have rapidjson-dev installed.

"""
jcea@jcea:~$ sudo apt-get install rapidjson-dev
[sudo] password for jcea:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
rapidjson-dev is already the newest version (0.12~git20141031-3).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
"""

According to http://rapidjson.org/ , last release is 1.1.0 from a year ago. Ubuntu 16.04 installs an ancient release: "0.12~git20141031-3". That version seems not to be recent enough for Kodi.

So rapidjson must be compiled and installed by hand or kodi needs to do it itself. This could be simple enough for kodi, as rapidjson is documented as "RapidJSON is a header-only C++ library. Just copy the include/rapidjson folder to system or project's include path.". But I don't know the details.

In any case, current build instructions are not working :-).

Thanks for your time!.

jcea · (This post was last modified: 2017-09-12, 13:52 by jcea.)

After compiling and installing rapidJSON by hand from http://rapidjson.org/ , Kodi compiles cleanly. A simple smoke test (just run it and navigate the menus) is successful.

I would suggest:

1. Change the WIKI to point to the up to date github README file. Current wiki doc is outdated and harmful.

2. Update KODI to take care of rapidjson itself or document how to download/compile/install by hand in the documentation.

Thanks.

**wsnipex** · 2017-09-12, 20:15

once again: a proper rapidjson version is available in our PPA, same for other libraries that are too old or non-existent in official ubuntu repos.
Thats why the docs tell you to add our nightly ppa.

jcea · 2017-09-12, 23:51

@wsnipex, documentation provides two paths for compilation: one installing kodi PPA's and another installing dependencies by hand. My interpretation is that BOTH ways are OK. The fact is that the manual approach is not working because the rapidjson version dependency.

I could do a pull request adding a paragraph about it in the README.UBUNTU file, if you want. The nice approach would be for kodi to provide this, like it provides libflac, etc., but my knowledge of the build system is not deep enough to even try a pull request.

I can write a paragraph for the README, though.

What do you think?.