Development of Rockbox Utility

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Tasks

Open Tasks in the tracker

Milestone 1: be on par with the old wx version

What?	Status?
Device detection	sansapatcher detection untested
Rockbox installation	done
Bootloader installation	done, needs testing
Font installation	done
Doom files installation	done
Theme installation	done
Talk file generation	done (only basic functionality)
Voice file installation	done
Uninstallation	done
Manual view	done: downloading to the device (no destination selection)
Complete Installation	done, code could be improved
Small Installation	done, code could be improved
Portable installation	done (only working if built as static binary)
Proxy setup	system proxy only working on linux (http_proxy environment variable)
Download cache	needs testing
I18N	support added, translations missing

Milestone 2: further enhancements

What?	Status?
uninstallation / install info	done
1st installation detection	if no / no valid user configuration is found, display a warning and open the configuration dialog
Device detection	use USB PIDs for detection linux (using libusb), windows (setupapi based)
Proxy	support "system proxy" setting on windows (registry values used)
L10N support	we have I18N already, extend it to do real L10N
Mountpoint resolving on mac	done
backup of installation prior to installing	rbutil now asks if you want to backup before installing a new Build
improving screenreader support	maybe add a drop downmenü with all install/uninstall options from the main tabs. / findout why jaws and other screenreaders have problems reading titles of QTabwidget: Qt bug, fixed with Qt 4.4.0.
builtin rbspeex and sapi.vbs	The rbspeex encoder should be built in, and the Sapi.vbs should be in the resource file (windows)
Talk file generation	support festival and the sapi scripts from svn; autodetect binaries; find a way to not make the progress window flicker; add option to generate talk files for directories only; incorporate sapi vbs scripts; add option to only voice certain file types; add options to correct voicestrings
voice file creation	needs the servers to provide the features file for every player
Unsupported iPod	Display exactly which unsupported iPod was found so as to help avoid user confusion when they are e.g. sure they have a Video not Classic and think it is RBUtil that is wrong
General	Code clean up - being worked on.
Better Progress Window	console version needs implementation, Logging to a file
Console commandos for rbutil	needs implementation - in Work (FS#8571)
clean orphan files	could be done by automatically performing an uninstallation before updating
install info cleanup	possibility to wipe all files that are marked as outdated in the info window / all files that don't match a specific (read: the current) version)
1st time installation	Operate in wizard mode instead of the "invalid configuration" splash. First thing should be UI language selection, without needing to restart.
Device detection	Auto detection should probably display directly what was found; at least the highlighting should be more prominent (currently very faint on laptop LCD)
Accessibility	Accessibility in rbutil needs improvement. Most of those isses are Qt issues. - (FS#10205)

Milestone 3: additions / ideas

Some of the following could be implemented with plugins. -- Qt supports plugins, but it hasn't figured out how to make use of that. Its also unclear which functionality should go into plugins.

What?	How?	Status?
Scrobbler submission	basically a frontend for libscrobbler
tagnavi_custom.config generator
default configuration	provide some reasonable defaults for config.cfg
video conversion	do it like WinFF
local repository	do we really want such a function? Offline mode does something similar
Configfile editor	A Editor for Rockbox config files
Optional components	Rbutil could install the midi patchset, if the license allows it (otherwise the patchset needs to be removed from the wiki as well)
Install/ uninstall	Support for multiple devices would be nice (perhaps use some sort of (quasi-)unique device ID?)
Translation	Support for editing .lang files in a user friendly way There's an online tool available at http://themes.rockbox.org so having support for this in Rockbox Utility would only duplicate work
UI Rework	see below
Talkfile generation for database

UI Rework

As rbutil gets more and more functions, the UI needs a rework. Lets collect ideas for a Rework here:

• Mainscreen:

Combine the first three Tabs (Quickstart, Installation, Extras) into one. Make a more global selection of release or current Build. Screenshots of mockups by bluebrother:

mainscreen

mainscreen during installation

Show more info about the currently selected Device. Ie currently installed version and maybe a player picture.

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How To Compile

If you want to work on RockboxUtility get the module "rockbox" from svn (you need parts of the Rockbox source tree, so it's easiest to grab the whole tree. If you don't want to do this: you'll need rbutil, and parts of tools and apps. You might want to use the script deploy-release.py in this case). Source code is in the rbutil/rbutilqt folder (plus other parts of the Rockbox source tree) in the Rockbox SVN (browse). You can download it with the command: svn co svn://svn.rockbox.org/rockbox/trunk rockbox

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You have to have Qt Version 4.5.0 or higher installed. Since r22624 out-of-tree building is possible. You can still build in-tree.

• building out-of-tree:
  Create a build folder somewhere outside of the source tree and change to that. The recommended location for the build folder is in the rockbox source folder. Then you run the command qmake followed by make in the build folder.
• building in-tree:
  change to the sources folder rbutilqt, run qmake, then make.

Depending on your installation the qmake binary of Qt4 might be called qmake-qt4. On linux and mac you'll also need libusb (including the development headers).

Notes:

• since out-of-tree building is supported the complete path to the sources and build folders must not contain spaces!
• the build defaults to a release build which has debugging output (even the console) disabled. To create a debug build run qmake with the config option "dbg", i.e. the following way: qmake -config dbg
• you can make the build output much more silent by adding the configuration "silent". The easier way is to add -config silent to the qmake call (you can add multiple -config switches, in case you also want to enable debugging output), or add the line CONFIG += silent to the project file.
  • Important note on Windows
    • Note that there is a bug in Qt/Windows which prevents -config silent from working. You can simply fix this by adjusting the path delimiter in mkspecs/features/resources.prf below the Qt installation directory -- the delimiter in the line naming rcc.exe needs to be a slash, not a backslash.
    • make sure to call the mingw32 make, not the msys one. You usually can ensure this by explicitly calling mingw32-make instead of make.
    • you can also define QMAKE_RCC in the project file to the correct binary using slashes.
    • if you don't have Qt in your PATH (i.e. calling qmake.exe using a full path) make sure to use /'s in the path. Otherwise make will fail.
    • Qt 4.3.3s qmake has a bug (at least on windows) which generates wrong makefiles. Comment out the UI_DIR entrys in the .pro file, as a hotfix.
• There is now a Makefile target "install" on non-windows platforms. It seems as it gets confused with the file install.cpp, but you can use the internal target "install_target" instead. This will only install the binary (to /usr/local/bin), language files are not handled yet. Unless you want to use translations you don't need to install anything else from the build. Translation files are now bundeled in the binary for non-debug builds.
• The non-debug builds now include the translations (*.qm files) in a resource file. These files are not present when building for the first time, therefore qmake will produce a warning. You can either safely ignore this warning (the translations are generated during the build process) or run lrelease-qt4 rbutilqt.pro before calling qmake-qt4.

Compiling on Windows

• You need to install the following
  • MinGW. You need a recent version (current is 5.1.6), the package offered for installation by Qt is not sufficient. Add at least the options "g++" and "make" to the selection during installation. You should append the bin folder of the MinGW installation in your PATH variable.
  • msys. Get the installer (current is 1.0.11). Several parts built as libraries require some tools that are not part of MinGW. As with MinGW, append the bin folder to your PATH. Make sure the MinGW path comes first or use mingw32-make instead of make (msys' make won't accepts backslashes in paths, but this is unfortunately needed by Qt).
  • get the "Qt Libraries for Windows package of Qt. Optionally, get the Qt Creator if you want to use it. Qt setup will detect an already installed MinGW and issue a warning if it's a version newer than expected. Ignore that warning, the newer version of MinGW is required. If you want to use Qt Creator try to build on the command line first to ensure your Qt setup itself is working.
  • You don't need to put Qt's bin folder in the PATH variable. If you chose to not add it you need to copy the Qt libs to the same folder as the binary (of course this does not apply if you're building a static binary).
  • current w32api (at least 3.12 and 3.13) conflicts with Qt -- this is a Qt issue. As a workaround use w32api-3.11. Simply extract the archive into the MinGW install folder. This issue doesn't exist anymore with current versions of Qt (tested with Qt 4.5.3).
  • Building using Visual Studio isn't supported -- rbutil uses some C99 features VS doesn't implement.
• for building the static release binary make sure to use -no-exceptions when building Qt. Otherwise you'll get a dependency on mingwm10.dll. Also, having support for exceptions enabled increases the binary size noticably.
  The current binaries are built using the following configuration of Qt:
  configure -no-exceptions -static -release -no-webkit -no-dbus -no-phonon -no-phonon-backend -no-qt3support -no-opengl -no-direct3d -no-style-motif -no-style-cde

Compiling on Mac OS X

• Install Qt (the "Qt Libraries" package is sufficient if you're not interested in Qt Creator or want to install it separately).
• Install libusb. Make sure to install a universal binary. You can get a universal binary of libusb at: http://www.ellert.se/twain-sane/
• run qmake, then make. Important note: on OS X 10.6 the default compiler is gcc-4.2 which doesn't support the 10.4 SDK anymore. To make it use the older gcc-4.0 (part of Xcode 3.2) set QMAKESPEC explicitly, i.e. invoke qmake as QMAKESPEC=macx-g++40 qmake. Official support for OS X 10.6 also requires at least Qt 4.6.

For building Qt itself, do the following

• Download the Qt source and uncompress it. I used qt-mac-opensource-src-4.3.0
• Run ./configure -universal -sdk /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk
• Run make followed by (as root) make install

You can then build rbutilqt by typing (in the rbutilqt source directory) /usr/local/Trolltech/Qt-4.3.0/bin/qmake followed by make

If you want to statically link rbutil with Qt (i.e. to build versions for distribution), add -static to the configure options.

An alternative to static linking is to use the instructions on http://doc.trolltech.com/4.3/deployment-mac.htm to include the frameworks in the application bundle. This method has the benefit of allowing plugins to be included too and also means that a static build of Qt is not required.

For deployment on mac, there is a "osx_deploy.sh script. It expects Qt as framework. So dont built Qt statically. You have to make sure that you have a universal libusb.a. Also make sure that rbutil links to the static version of libusb. (easiest way is to rename the libusb.dynlib in your search path) You can get a universal binary of libusb at: http://www.ellert.se/twain-sane/

Notes: I had an error regarding when compiling Qt related to missing pq_* functions. I fixed this by disabling PostgreSQL support - adding "-no-sql-psql" to the ./configure line.

More advice for compiling on the Mac is available here - http://doc.trolltech.com/qtjambi/com/trolltech/qt/platform-notes-mac.html

Statically Compiling on Linux

For building the static binary the following configuration was used:
./configure -prefix /usr/local/qt4.4.3-static/ -release -static -no-exceptions -no-qt3support -no-phonon -no-phonon-backend -no-xinerama -no-openssl -no-xcursor -no-cups
You can have two differently configured versions of Qt alongside without any problems, just remember to call the correct qmake. There is no need to make the Qt bin-folder part of the PATH variable. If you want to omit demos and examples during Qt compilation, omit the -fast option in the configure line and run make sub-src sub-tools instead of make.

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How to Translate

• Note: Prebuilt binaries of Qt Linguist (without any dependencies) are available at http://code.google.com/p/qtlinguistdownload/

Qt supports I18N and Rockbox Utility uses this. To translate Rockbox Utility do the following:

• add a new file to the TRANSLATIONS line in rbutilqt/rbutilqt.pro.
• run lupdate rbutilqt.pro
• edit the resulting *.ts file using "linguist"
• run lrelease to convert the *.ts file to the *.qm format that is used for I18N.
• put the resulting *.qm file in the same folder as the executable. Rockbox Utility will then detect the new translation and allow you to use it.
• or add the resulting *.qm file in rbutil-lang.qrc and the language file will be built into the binary.
• and don't forget to post the *.ts file to the tracker so we can include it

Translation status

Note: this table is generated using the script langstats.py and updated in the wiki manually. Do not edit the table manually, such changes will get lost on the next update with the script.

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How to add a new Target

To add a new target you have to edit the following files:

• rbutil.ini - add a new target similar to whats already there.

If your Target has a new Bootloader installation method:

• base/bootloaderinstallXYZ.cpp / h - add a new class which implements BootloaderInstallBase and does the neccessary things for your bootloader.
• base/bootloaderinstallBase.cpp : postinstallHints() if your target needs user info after bootloader installation, add it here.
• rbutilqt.cpp : installBootloader() - add a case for your new Bootloaderclass

If there are ways for your target to detect the mountpoint or, in case of duplicate USB-IDs, detect the correct Target:

• base/autodetection.cpp/h - edit so it also detects your specific files/folders or calls your specific detection method.

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How to add a new TTS Engine

The TTS Engines are in base/tts.cpp / .h. Add your new Engine to the list in initTTSList() and the switch in getTTS().

If your new engine is a simple external executable, you can add a template line to constructor of TTSExes and you are done.

If you have to interface your TTS Engine via another way, or want to give more options to the user, you have to create a new TTS Class which inherits from TTSBase. You will have to implement at least the following functions:

• voice - generate a wavfile out of the given parameters
• start - startup your engine
• stop - stop your engine
• configOk() - should return true, when everything setting is correct.
• generateSettings() - generate settings-objects for your settings for display
• saveSettings() - save the generated settings-objects to permanent storage.

To display settings, the TTS Classes implements the EncTtsSettingInterface which you can find in base/encttssettings.h/cpp. In the generateSetting() function you should create EncTtsSetting objects for all your settings. Each Setting contains the following Information:

• The type of the Setting (bool,double,int,string,readonlystring,stringlist)
• The name of the Setting
• The current value
• If it is a stringlist, the list of strings
• If it is a int or double, the min and max values
• If the setting needs a refresh or browse button

You can connect to the following signals:

• refresh() - if you want to be noticed if the user clicks the refresh button.
• dataChanged() - if you want to be noticed when ever the data changes

Add your newly generated objects with insertSetting() to the internal list. insertSetting() also takes a ID, which you can use to retrieve the object again in the saveSettings object.

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Distribution packages

Currently there are no distribution packages planned. Packages might be requested from distributions. Requests we are aware of:

• Ubuntu: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/192989
• PCLinuxOS: http://www.pclinuxos.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=58&topic=61708.0
• Arch Linux: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=26563

Please note that we do not support any versions of Rockbox Utility packaged by distributions!

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Autodetection

All supported devices can be detected automatically. Rockbox Utility will display a warning when autodetection wasn't successful; you can always select your device manually. If you installed Rockbox once it can get detected via the file /.rockbox/rockbox-info.txt. This will work on all devices. See DeviceDetection for further details.

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Resolving mountpoints

This relies on detecting the player first (see paragraph above). The following table list when / how we can resolve the mountpoint afterwards. This table only holds supported players; all supported player can now (as of 2008-04-03) be detected reliably. denotes a possible way of resolving that hasn't been implemented yet. Once Rockbox is installed mountpoint resolving using rockbox-info.txt will always work.

Brand	Player	Windows	Linux	OS X
Apple	all Ipods	resolving from drive UNC path figured by ipodpatcher (fallback: check for iPod_Control folder)	device node known by ipodpatcher, resolving using mtab	same as linux
Archos	all	detect some specific files (firmware image on disk, magic in firmware file)	same	same
Cowon	X5, M5	unknown (no specific file to check for)	same	same
Iriver	H100, H300	only detection based on USB possible, currently there is no way known to resolve USB PID -> mountpoint	same	same
Iriver	H10	possible recognizing the bootloader file location	same	same
Packard Bell	Vibe 500	possible recognizing the bootloader file location	same	same
Sandisk	e200, c200	resolving from drive UNC path figured by sansapatcher	device node known by sansapatcher, resolving using mtab	same as linux
Olympus	m:robe 100	possible looking for bootloader file	same	same
Toshiba	Gigabeat	possible searching for bootloader file	same	same

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Releasing

The script deploy-release.py is intended to automate releasing by building the current checkout state and packaging it to a tar.bz2 / zip file. Use the command line option -q / --qmake to pass the path to the qmake binary of the Qt installation you want to use (if there are multiple), otherwise the system is searched for a Qt4 installation and the first found gets used.

Brief release checklist

1. update the version info in version.h and Info.plist and commit them.
2. tag svn. As rbutil now needs parts of the main Rockbox sources we need to tag trunk, not only the rbutil folder. Use a version number as in the following example:
   svn copy svn://svn.rockbox.org/rockbox/trunk svn://svn.rockbox.org/rockbox/tags/rbutil_1.0.5
3. run deploy-release.py to do the following steps. Don't forget to -a libusb.a on the platforms that require it.
   1. lrelease the language files (they are now in the resource, so this need to be done before building!) make takes care of this now.
   2. configure with qmake -config release -config static
   3. build against static libraries
   4. linux: strip the binaries (seems to be mostly an issue on linux)
   5. windows: upx the binary to cut down its size
   6. osx: run osx_deploy.sh. Make sure libusb is static and universal.
   7. compress the result (tarball / zip)
4. Put the result to some public location and ping someone with access to the download server

deploy-release.py

The script deploy-release.py is intended for simplifying the release process but can also get used for building. This is especially useful if you just want to build RockboxUtility and don't want to get the full Rockbox svn.

• Prerequisites
  • all prerequisites for building Rockbox Utility itself
  • Python. Tested with Python 2.5 and 2.6. Will not work with Python 3.0
  • pysvn
  • which.py
  • upx.exe (Windows only)
• Features
  • Download sources from SVN trunk (default) or tag (as specified on command line) or build from local tree (as specified)
  • Create source archive (.tar.bz2)
  • Build binary archive (.tar.bz2 on Linux, .zip on Windows)
  • Support building static and dynamically linked binaries
• Usage
  • Use deploy-release.py -h to get an overview of the supported command line options. All created archives will get placed in the current directory while building itself takes place in the systems temporary path.
  • Note: already existing archives will get overwritten without notice!

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History

This is the Qt version of Rockbox Utility. It supersedes the older wxwidgets based version which isn't maintained anymore and has therefore been removed from svn.

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