Download Linux Kernel 3.5.4 / 3.6.0

I am sharing my kernel builds for Linux 3.5.4 and 3.6.0. Hope it works for everyone.

• linux360-586mmx.zip
  
• linux354-586mmx.zip
  

To Compile ndiswrapper 1.58rc1 for Linux 3.5.4

ndiswrapper allows Linux users to use Windows drivers for PCI/USB network adapters on Linux. If you own a network device for which Linux support is still absent or premature, then you need to compile ndiswrapper yourself and install Windows driver for your network device. Fortunately, today's Linux supports most network devices out-of-box, so most distributions don't bother to include ndiswrapper. However, I am compiling ndiswrapper believing that Windows NDIS drivers would outperform native Linux drivers.

To my surprise, building the latest version of ndiswrapper (1.58rc1) did not require any patch. After compiling Linux 3.5.4, I downloaded the ndiswrapper source from the sourceforge site. I chose the testing version because I thought it would work better with Linux 3.5.x. I unpacked the source.

tar xzvf ndiswrapper-1.58rc1.tar.gz
cd ndiswrapper-1.58rc1

I typed the following commands to compile and install ndiswrapper.

KVERS=3.5.4 make uninstall
KVERS=3.5.4 make
KVERS=3.5.4 make install

Then, I generated modules.* files again.

depmod -e -m -F /boot/System.map-3.5.4 3.5.4

The following files were installed by ndiswrapper.

/lib/modules/3.5.4/misc/ndiswrapper.ko
/sbin/loadndisdriver
/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper
/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper-buginfo
/usr/share/man/man8/loadndisdriver.8
/usr/share/man/man8/ndiswrapper.8

Also read:

• Linux: Installing Windows Vista/7 Wireless Driver for use with ndiswrapper
  
• Linux: To Compile wpa_supplicant on Debian 3.1 Sarge
  

Happiness the Movie 2007

Happiness is a Korean movie that makes you think seriously about the true meaning of happiness in life. It tells a story of two terminal patients who met at a remote nursing home and fell in love with each other. However, the guy leaves the girl for a careless, material life in the city. In the end, he comes back to the girl only to find her dying and regrets having left her. The movie tries to teach us that true happiness is about being close to someone you care about no matter how sick or poor he/she is.

My All-Purpose Init Script for initrd / initramfs Boot Images

Here I post my init script. It is used in my initrd/initramfs boot images for the following purposes.

• Boot from a live CD / DVD
  
• Boot from a read-only filesystem image, compressed in SquashFS
  
• Copy the filesystem image to a RAM disk and run Linux entirely on memory
  
• Boot Linux from a USB flash drive
  
• Boot Linux from a local disk partition
  
• Run a rescue shell without booting Linux
  

I have yet to implement network booting. Right now it is good enough for my current needs. It takes the following boot parameters.

• root=
  
  Specifies the root partition to boot Linux from. For example, /dev/sda2.
  
• label=
  
  Specifies the label of the device to boot from. For example, label=DEBIAN.
  
• uuid=
  
  Specifies the UUID of the device to boot from. For example, uuid=dcfd6a0a-2a0f-4b3d-8a1a-5e7d642ebfbd
  
• boot=
  
  Can be cdrom, loop, ram, usb or ata.
  
• vmode=
  
  Specifies the screen resolution of the framebuffer video. For example, vmode=640x480
  
• single
  
  Boot into the single-user mode.
  
• nox
  
  Boot into the console mode in runlevel 2
  

#!/bin/dash

# Define a function to parse kernel command line options.
get_opt() {
  echo $@ | cut -d "=" -f 2
}

# Define a function to load drivers.
loadmod() {
  for i in $@ ; do
    for j in $(grep $i /tmp/pcimodules.txt); do
      modprobe $j
    done
  done
}

# Define a function to guess the partition type.
gpart() {
  for i in $(blkid | grep $1); do
    case $i in
      *\=*)
        eval $i
        ;;
      *)
        true
        ;;
    esac
  done
}

# Define a function for mounting the root partition.
mountr() {
  if [ $uuid ]; then
    if [ $# = 2 ]; then
      mount -r -U $uuid $2
    elif [ $# = 1 ]; then
      mount -r -U $uuid $1
    else mount -r -U $uuid /mnt
    fi
  elif [ $label ]; then
    if [ $# = 2 ]; then
      mount -r -L $label $2
    elif [ $# = 1 ]; then
      mount -r -L $label $1
    else mount -r -L $label /mnt
    fi
  else
    gpart $1
    case $TYPE in
      ext*)
        e2fsck -p $1
        [ $# = 2 ] && mount $1 $2 || mount $1 /mnt
        ;;
      jfs)
        jfs_fsck $1
        if [ $# = 2 ]; then
          mount -t jfs -o ro,iocharset=utf8 $1 $2
        else mount -t jfs -o ro,iocharset=utf8 $1 /mnt
        fi
        ;;
      vfat)
        if [ $# = 2 ]; then
          mount -t vfat -o ro,gid=100,dmask=2,fmask=113 $1 $2
        else mount -t vfat -o ro,gid=100,dmask=2,fmask=113 $1 /mnt
        fi
        ;;
      *)
        [ $# = 2 ] && mount -r $1 $2 || mount -r $1 /mnt
        ;;
    esac
  fi
}

# Create a union filesystem
union() {
  mount -t tmpfs none /opt/tmp
  modinfo unionfs > /dev/null 2>&1 &&
  mount -t unionfs -o dirs=/opt/tmp=rw:/opt=ro none /mnt ||
  ( mkdir /opt/tmp/.change
    modprobe fuse
    unionfs-fuse -o allow_other,use_ino,suid,dev,nonempty,kernel_cache \
     -o cow,chroot=/opt,max_files=32768 /tmp/.change=RW:/=RO /mnt )
}

# Mount proc and sysfs.
mount -t proc none /proc
mount -t sysfs none /sys

# Find the available PCI hardware
mount -t tmpfs none /tmp
pcimodules > /tmp/pcimodules.txt

# Populate /dev (Needs kernel >= 2.6.32)
mount -t devtmpfs none /dev
mkdir -m 755 /dev/pts
mount -t devpts -o gid=5,mode=620 none /dev/pts

# Set default values
boot=ata
root=/dev/sda6

# Find the root=, label=, uuid= and boot= values on kernel command line.
for i in $(cat /proc/cmdline); do
  case $i in
    root\=*)
        root=$(get_opt $i)
        case $root in
          /dev/cdr* | /dev/dvd* | /dev/sr* | /dev/scd*)
            boot=cdrom
            ;;
          0x200)
            root=/dev/fd0
            ;;
        esac
        ;;
    label\=* | uuid\=* | boot\=* | vmode\=* )
        eval $i
        ;;
    single)
        RUNLEVEL=single
        ;;
    nox)
        RUNLEVEL=2
        ;;
  esac
done

# Activate framebuffer display devices.
if [ $vmode ]; then
  if [ $boot = cdrom ]; then
    modprobe uvesafb scroll=ywrap mode_option=$vmode-16
  else for i in $(grep fb /tmp/pcimodules.txt); do
    case $i in
      atyfb)
        modprobe $i mode=$vmode-16
        ;;
      nvidiafb | rivafb)
        modprobe nvidiafb mode_option=$vmode bpp=16 hwcur=1
        ;;
      radeonfb | savagefb)
        modprobe $i mode_option=$vmode-16
        ;;
      sisfb)
        modprobe $i mode=$vmodex16 mem=12288 font=SUN12x22
        ;;
      viafb | vt8623fb)
        modprobe viafb viafb_mode=$vmode viafb_bpp=16
        ;;
      *)
        modprobe $i
        ;;
    esac
  done
    if grep -q i915 /tmp/pcimodules.txt; then true
    else [ -c /dev/fb0 ] || modprobe uvesafb scroll=ywrap mode_option=$vmode-16
    fi
  fi
fi

case $boot in
    cdrom)
        # Boot Linux from a live CD.
        loadmod ata_ ahci pdc_adma ^.hci-hcd
        modprobe usb-storage &&
        modprobe sr_mod &&
        sleep 7
        modprobe isofs
        mount -t iso9660 /dev/sr0 /media
        [ -d /media/isolinux -o -d /media/boot/isolinux ] || 
          mount -t iso9660 /dev/sr1 /media
        if [ -f /media/*.[Ss][Qq]* ]; then
          SQF=$(ls -t /media/*.[Ss][Qq]* | head -n 1)
          if [ $root = /dev/ram ]; then 
               echo "Please wait until the RAM disk is ready."
               dd if=$SQF of=/dev/ram1 bs=2048 &&
               mount -t squashfs /dev/ram1 /opt
          else modprobe loop
               mount -t squashfs -o loop $SQF /opt
          fi
        else
          mount --move /media /opt
        fi
        union
        ;;
    loop)
        # Boot Linux from an image file.
        loadmod ata_ ahci pdc_adma ^.hci-hcd
        modprobe usb-storage &&
        modprobe sd_mod &&
        sleep 7
        mountr $root /media
        modprobe loop
        if [ -f /media/*.[Ss][Qq]* ]; then
          SQF=$(ls -t /media/*.[Ss][Qq]* | head -n 1)
          mount -t squashfs -o loop $SQF /opt
        elif [ -f /media/*.[Ii][Ss][Oo] ]; then
          ISO=$(ls -t /media/*.[Ii][Ss][Oo] | head -n 1)
          modprobe isofs
          mount -t iso9660 -o loop $ISO /opt
        fi
        union
        ;;
    ram)
        # Boot Linux from ramdisk.
        loadmod ata_ ahci pdc_adma ^.hci-hcd
        modprobe usb-storage &&
        modprobe sd_mod &&
        sleep 7
        mountr $root /media
        echo "Please wait until the RAM disk is ready."
        if [ -f /media/*.[Ss][Qq]* ]; then
          SQF=$(ls -t /media/*.[Ss][Qq]* | head -n 1)
          dd if=$SQF of=/dev/ram1 &&
          mount -t squashfs /dev/ram1 /opt
        elif [ -f /media/*.[Ii][Ss][Oo] ]; then
          ISO=$(ls -t /media/*.[Ii][Ss][Oo] | head -n 1)
          dd if=$ISO of=/dev/ram1 bs=2048 &&
          modprobe isofs
          mount -t iso9660 /dev/ram1 /opt
        fi
        union
        ;;
    usb*)
        # Boot Linux from a USB drive.
        loadmod ^.hci-hcd
        modprobe usb-storage &&
        modprobe sd_mod &&
        sleep 7
        mountr $root
        ;;
    ata*)
        loadmod ata_ ahci pdc_adma &&
        modprobe sd_mod &&
        mountr $root
        ;;
esac

# Make sure that init exists and is executable.
if [ -x /mnt/sbin/init ]; then
  mount --move /dev /mnt/dev
  mount --move /proc /mnt/proc
  mount --move /sys /mnt/sys
  umount /tmp

# Start init from the root filesystem.
  cd /mnt
  [ -f /media/updates.zip ] && unzip -o /media/updates.zip
  case $boot in
    cdrom)
      [ $root = /dev/ram ] && umount /media
      [ $RUNLEVEL ] || RUNLEVEL=3
      ;;
    loop | ram)
      umount /media
      [ $RUNLEVEL ] || RUNLEVEL=3
      ;;
    *)
      [ $RUNLEVEL ] || RUNLEVEL=5
      ;;
  esac
  [ -d initrd ] && pivot_root . initrd
  exec chroot . /sbin/init $RUNLEVEL
fi

# Start a shell as a last resort.
echo "Error booting from the root filesystem. Starting a shell."
exec /bin/dash

The following are examples of boot parameters that can be used with my init script.

• Boot Linux from the local hard drive partition /dev/sda8
  
  

  boot=ata root=/dev/sda8

  
  
• Boot Linux from the latest squashfs file (*.sq*) on /dev/sda1
  
  

  boot=loop root=/dev/sda1

  
  
• Boot Linux from the CD-ROM with 1024x768 video resolution
  
  

  boot=cdrom vmode=1024x768

  
  
• Copy the squashfs image from CD-ROM into memory and run Linux on memory
  
  

  boot=cdrom root=/dev/ram ramdisk_size=573440 vmode=800x600

  
  
• Boot Linux from the second partition of a USB drive
  
  

  boot=usb root=/dev/sda2

  
  

Also read:

• Manually Creating initrd / initramfs to Boot Linux
  
• To Create a Live Linux CD/DVD
  
• Using UnionfsFuse on Debian/Ubuntu Linux
  

Using UnionfsFuse on Debian/Ubuntu Linux

Unionfs-fuse is a user-space implementation of unionfs that makes it possible to run Linux over a read-only medium, such as CD-ROM. Unionfs-fuse is a convenient alternative to kernel implementations (unionfs, aufs and overlayfs), so users don't have to patch the kernel in order to try unionfs. There are many possible uses of unionfs:

• Create a live CD
  
• Run Linux from a read-only filesystem image, such as a squashfs file
  
• Freeze an existing Linux system and save all changes in the memory
  

Unionfs achieves all this by merging a read-only filesystem and a writeable filesystem into a single virtual filesystem and mount it at a certain mount point. Let's try and apply unionfs-fuse to the third situation above. Basically, we need to create an initramfs file containing unionfs-fuse and a custom init script. The basic procedure is like this:

1. Load kernel drivers necessary to access the underlying storage device
   
2. Mount the read-only filesystem image at /opt
   
3. Mount tmpfs at /opt/tmp and create a directory /opt/tmp/.change
   
4. Use unionfs-fuse to merge the two and mount it at /mnt
   
5. Use chroot and start /sbin/init to boot the new unionfs filesystem
   

To carry about the above steps, an init script might look like this:

#!/bin/dash
# Use the small but functional dash to process this script

# Mount /proc, /sys, /dev and /dev/pts just in case
mount -t proc none /proc
mount -t sysfs none /sys
mount -t devtmpfs none /dev
mkdir -m 755 /dev/pts
mount -t devpts -o gid=5,mode=620 none /dev/pts

# Write commands here to load modules necessary to access a hard drive
modprobe pata_via
modprobe sd_mod

# Mount the Linux filesystem read-only at /opt
mount -r /dev/sda6 /opt

# Mount tmpfs at /opt/tmp
mount -t tmpfs none /opt/tmp
mkdir /opt/tmp/.change

# Create a unionfs mount at /mnt
modprobe fuse
unionfs-fuse -o allow_other,use_ino,suid,dev,nonempty,kernel_cache \
   -o cow,chroot=/opt,max_files=32768 /tmp/.change=RW:/=RO /mnt

# Make sure that init exists and is executable
if [ -x /mnt/sbin/init ]; then
  mount --move /dev /mnt/dev
  mount --move /proc /mnt/proc
  mount --move /sys /mnt/sys

# Start init from the root filesystem with runlevel 5.
  exec chroot /mnt /sbin/init 5
fi

The computer will boot into a virtual unionfs, consisting of writable tmpfs on top of read-only root filesystem. Make sure to modify /etc/rc.local so that it contains the following snippet of code.

for i in `ps ax | grep unionfs | grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}'`; do
  echo $i > /var/run/sendsigs.omit.d/unionfs.$i;
done

This prevents Linux from killing unionfs-fuse during shutdown so the system will properly shut down.

Related Posts

• Manually Creating initrd / initramfs to Boot Linux

To Build Transmission-Daemon for Windows

Transmission is a free bittorrent application available on Linux. It is a pretty neat tool compared to other bittorrent software. It is possible to compile and use Transmission on Windows, thanks to Cygwin. First, install Cygwin using the Cygwin installer(setup.exe). I set the Root directory to C:\Cygwin and chose to install the following packages in addition to base packages.

• bison
  
• gettext-devel
  
• libtool
  
• make
  
• binutils
  
• gcc4-g++
  
• patch
  
• pkg-config
  

Compile zlib.

./configure --prefix=/usr --static
make
cp -iv zconf.h zlib.h /usr/include
cp -iv libz.a /usr/lib

Build OpenSSL.

./Configure -DHAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC -lz -lpthread threads zlib --prefix=/usr cygwin
make
make install

Build CURL.

./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-shared --with-ssl --with-ca-bundle=ca-bundle.crt
make
make install

Compile libevent.

./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-shared
make 
make install

Lastly, build transmission.

./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-shared --enable-static --disable-nls --without-gtk CPPFLAGS=-DHAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC
make
make install

If you get snprintf error with libutp, insert the following line into utp.cpp:

extern int snprintf(char *, size_t, const char *, ...);

To Compile UnionFS-fuse 0.26 on Debian Linux

I am trying to switch to unionfs-fuse for my live CD, but so far I haven't much success yet. Debian's unionfs-fuse package in Sid is outdated (version 0.24), so I compiled version 0.26. I had to install libfuse-dev in order to be able to build UnionFS-fuse. I probably needed cmake too, but I didn't choose to install cmake.

• cmake
  
• gcc
  
• libfuse-dev
  
• make
  

I edited Makefile to change PREFIX.

PREFIX=/usr
BINDIR=/bin
SBINDIR=/sbin

I just typed make to begin compilation.

make
make install

The following files are installed.

/usr/bin/unionfs
/usr/sbin/mount.unionfs
/usr/share/man/man8/unionfs-fuse.8

To make it compatible with Debian and derivatives, I renamed unionfs.

mv /usr/bin/unionfs /usr/bin/unionfs-fuse

Download Aria2 1.15.2

Here you can download my Windows builds of aria2. This is the result of my previous post on how to build aria2 for Windows.

• aria2c.exe version 1.15.2 for 32-bit Windows

I didn't expect my Windows build to depend on libstdc++-6.dll. I think that's because I used Cygwin's mingw64 compiler. It still works, though.

Aria2c Usage

aria2c --file-allocation=prealloc ftp://192.168.1.64/pardus.iso

If aria2 aborts a download due to a connection error, you can resume the download any time using aria2c like this:

aria2c -c ftp://192.168.1.64/pardus.iso

To download files from URL's written in a file urls.txt to a folder Downloads, run aria2 as follows. The urls.txt should contain one download per line with URL's seperated by a tab:

aria2c -i urls.txt -d Downloads

Compile Aria2 1.15.2 with MinGW

Aria2 is a command-line download utility. It can be used to download files quickly from http(s), ftp, bittorrent, magnet and metalink locations. I prefer this handy tool over other programs, such as Free Download Manager and Frostwire because it's lean, fast and full of features. It took me a couple of days to compile Aria2 with all the features available. The following step-by-step guide will help you build your own aria2 program (aria2c.exe) the way I did.

1. Install MinGW
   

   Follow one of the following guides to install MingW:

   
   
   • Setting up MinGW64 with Cygwin
     
   • Installing MinGW on Windows
   
   
   
2. POSIX Threads
   

   Download the source for Pthreads library (pthreads-w32-2-9-1-release.tar.gz) and compile it like this:

   
   

   make clean GC-static
   cp pthread.h semaphore.h sched.h /mingw/include/
   cp libpthreadGC2.a /mingw/lib/libpthread.a

   
   
   
3. zlib
   

   Zlib is needed by the OpenSSL library below. Download the zlib source and compile it like this:

   
   

   make -f win32/Makefile.gcc
   make -f win32/Makefile.gcc install BINARY_PATH=/mingw/bin INCLUDE_PATH=/mingw/include LIBRARY_PATH=/mingw/lib

   
   
   
4. OpenSSL
   

   Aria2 requires either GnuTLS or OpenSSL for secure transfers. In this guide, OpenSSL is chosen over GnuTLS. Use 7-zip to unpack the tarball because it contains symbolic links.

   
   

   ./Configure -DHAVE_STRUCT_TIMESPEC -DPTW32_STATIC_LIB -L/mingw/lib -lz -lpthread -lws2_32 --prefix=/mingw threads zlib mingw
   make
   make install

   
   
   

5. Expat

   
   

   Aria2 can use either LibXML2 or Expat for XML parsing. In this guide, Expat will be used. Download the expat source and compile expat like this:

   
   

   ./configure --build=i686-w64-mingw32 --prefix=/mingw --disable-shared --enable-static
   make 
   make install

   
   
   

6. C-Ares

   
   

   C-Ares is a C library that performs DNS requests and resolves DNS names asynchronously. Download the C-ares source from c-ares.haxx.se and unpack it. Then, compile C-Ares as follows:

   
   

   ./configure --build=i686-w64-mingw32 --prefix=/mingw --disable-shared CPPFLAGS='-I/mingw/include -DCARES_STATICLIB'
   make
   make install

   
   
   

7. SQLite 3

   
   

   Download the SQLite source (sqlite-amalgamation-3071300.zip) and build SQLite 3:

   
   

   gcc -O2 -DNDEBUG=1 -DTHREADSAFE=1 -c *.c
   ar ru /mingw/lib/libsqlite3.a sqlite3.o
   cp -iv *.h /mingw/include

   
   

   Create sqlite3.pc and put it in /mingw/lib/pkgconfig.

   
   

   prefix=/mingw
   exec_prefix=${prefix}
   libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
   includedir=${prefix}/include
   
   Name: SQLite
   Description: SQL database engine
   Version: 3.5
   
   Libs: -L${libdir} -lsqlite3
   Cflags: -I${includedir}

   
   
   

8. aria2c

   
   

   Finally, we are ready to compile Aria2. Download the Aria2 source from aria2.sf.net and unpack the source. Then, configure aria2 as follows:

   
   

   ./configure --build=i686-w64-mingw32 --prefix=/mingw --enable-threads=posix --with-ca-bundle=ca-bundle.crt --disable-nls LIBS='-lpthread -lws2_32 -lcares -lz' CPPFLAGS='-DPTW32_STATIC_LIB -DCARES_STATICLIB'
   

   
   
   
   
   

   Then, issue the following commands to compile Aria2:

   
   

   make
   make install

   
   
   
9. Optionally, strip and compress the executable aria2c.exe.
   
   

   strip aria2c.exe
   upx --best --strip-relocs=0 aria2c.exe

   
   

To download my Windows builds of aria2, go here.

Aria2c Usage

aria2c --file-allocation=prealloc ftp://192.168.1.64/pardus.iso

If aria2 aborts a download due to a connection error, you can resume the download any time using aria2c like this:

aria2c -c ftp://192.168.1.64/pardus.iso

To download files from URL's written in a file urls.txt to a folder Downloads, run aria2 as follows. The urls.txt should contain one download per line with URL's seperated by a tab:

aria2c -i urls.txt -d Downloads

The Man from Nowhere - 아저씨 [Eng SUB]

The Man from Nowhere is a pretty well-made Korean action movie that has set the new standard for violence in Korean films but also manages to touch the emotional side of the viewers. The movie tells the story of a reclusive former special-ops agent who becomes attached to a neighbor girl and gets himself involved with cold-blooded Korean underground gangs in a bid to save the girl. The fighting scenes are brutal and realistic, and there are some nasty scenes with the criminals doing business, so viewer discretion is recommended. Other than that, the storyline is well structured and the flow is flawless. Overall, most viewers will like the movie.

Movie that enraged Muslims around the World

I was curious what on earth caused Muslims around the world to be mad and attack American embassies lately. It turns out that a movie has been made in the United States that makes fun of prophet Mohammed and the whole religion of Islam. The movie trailer is still on YouTube. Here's the movie snippet that's highly controversial and provocative even in the eyes of non-Muslims.

Halfway along the film, I wondered who in his right mind would think of making such a provocative movie. Indeed, there are several clues in the movie that hint on the movie's motive and its messages. The movie is boldly mocking Mohammed and depicts Islam as violent, immoral religion. Obviously, the movie is intended to ridicule and provoke Muslims and their religion. The movie questions the way Islam forced conversion of non-Muslims to the its religion.

I have to say the movie producer is outright bold and gutsy whoever he is. But I don't know who'll ever enjoy watching the movie other than hatemongers.

Compile xz for Windows using MinGW

xz is the new popular compression format. To build xz tools and libraries, I issued the following commands.

./configure --prefix=/mingw --disable-shared --disable-nls --disable-lzma-links --disable-scripts
make
make install

I got the following files:

lzmadec.exe
lzmainfo.exe
unxz.exe
xz.exe
xzcat.exe
xzdec.exe

Note that xz can be used to create and decompress lzma files also.

Kung Fu Hustle (2004) 功夫

Kung Fu Hustle is a funny but memorable movie from Hong Kong star Stephen Chow. If you haven't seen it yet, here's your chance to watch the movie.

And the one below is the original Chinese version with English subtitles.

Building MPlayer and Mencoder for Windows

MPlayer is one of my favorite media players. It is used with a frontend like smplayer, gnome-mplayer and MPlayerGUI to provide a good alternative to Windows Media Player. Although there are already several Win32 builds of MPlayer on the net, I like to build MPlayer on my own using MinGW compiler because I want to optimize my build for my CPU. So I installed MinGW and compiled MPlayer as follows.

1. Build ffmpeg statically or dynamically as shown in this post.

   
   
   
2. (Optional) Compile the lzo library:
   
   

   ./configure --prefix=/mingw && make && make install

   
   
   

3. (Optional) Fribidi is a rendering library for right-to-left scripts, such as Arabic and Hebrew. If you are a speaker of such right-to-left languages, compile fribidi statically as shown below:

   
   

   ./configure --prefix=/mingw --disable-shared --disable-debug
   make
   make install

   
   

   More information can be found here.

   
   
   
4. Download JPEG source from ijg.org and complie JPEG:
   
   

   ./configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-static
   make
   make install

   
   
   
5. Compile libPNG:
   
   

   ./configure --prefix=/mingw --disable-shared
   make
   make install

   
   
   
6. Compile libiconv, Freetype, expat and fontconfig statically in that order:
   
   

   ./configure --prefix=/mingw --disable-shared
   make install

   
   
   
7. Compile libdca:
   
   

   ./configure --prefix=/mingw
   make
   make install

   
   
   
8. (Optional) Download DirectX headers from any of the following locations and unpack them in /mingw/include:
   
   
   
   
   • http://www.videolan.org/vlc/dx7headers.tgz
     
   • http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/contrib/win32/dx7headers.tgz
     
   
   
   
9. Download the latest mplayer source (mplayer-export-snapshot.tar.bz2) and unpack it. (patch 1 and patch 2)
   
   

   tar xjvf mplayer-export-snapshot.tar.bz2
   cd mplayer-export-2010-02-07/

   
   

   Then, run ./configure:

   
   

   CPPFLAGS='-DFRIBIDI_ENTRY="" ' ./configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-runtime-cpudetection --enable-static --enable-theora --enable-fribidi --disable-ffmpeg_a --disable-gl --disable-vidix --yasm=/mingw/bin/yasm --extra-libs='-lfribidi'

   
   

   The CPPFLAGS value allows fribidi to be linked statically.

   
   
   
10. Build Mplayer:
    
    

    make

    
    
    

    After successful build, strip the executables:

    
    

    strip m*.exe

    
    
    

    Optionally, compress the executables with upx:

    
    

    upx --best --strip-relocs=0 mplayer.exe
    upx --best --strip-relocs=0 mencoder.exe

    
    
    

11. Download MPlayer codecs from here. The MPlayer codecs for Windows platform has a filename like windows-essential-20071007.zip. Extract the codecs package and you'll get a folder "windows-essential-20071007". Rename it as "codecs" and move the "codecs" folder inside where mplayer.exe file is located.

    
    
    

12. Make sure that HOME environment variable is set to your personal folder(for example, C:\Users\Jocelyn). Upon the first run of mplayer, a new folder named mplayer will be created in your HOME folder. Copy codecs.conf to the mplayer folder. The "config" file stores default options for playing movie files. Open the "config" file and make changes as follows:

    
    

    # Write your default config options here!
    cdrom-device=D:
    dvd-device=D:
    ao=dsound
    vo=direct3d
    font=C:\WINDOWS\FONTS\MALGUN.TTF
    framedrop=yes
    subcp=cp949

    
    

My win32 build of mplayer can be downloaded from here. It is recommended that the zip archive should be extracted in C:\Program Files.

Running MPlayer

Now, let's try mplayer. First, get a movie file ready. In the Command Prompt, type a command in the following form:

mplayer mymoviefile.avi

Alternatively,

mplayer -vo direct3d -ao win32 -font C:\WINDOWS\FONTS\Tahoma.ttf -framedrop mymoviefile.avi

A new window will pop up with the movie playing inside it.

The next step is to get and set up SMPlayer.

Compiling CMake with MinGW

CMake is a portable build system. CMake can be used to replace the traditional GNU build process, as in:

./configure

make

make install

Compiling CMake is fairly simple. After you install MinGW (as shown in this post), download and unpack the CMake source tarball. Run the following commands in order.

tar xzvf cmake-2.8.9.tar.gz
cd cmake-2.8.9
./bootstrap --prefix=/mingw
make
make install

To Compile ffmpeg with MinGW

ffmpeg is an important component of many open-source projects, such as MPlayer and VLC. I am compiling ffmpeg so that I can use it to transcode multimedia files. This guide shows how to use MinGW to compile ffmpeg either statically or dynamically. Installation of MinGW is explained in this post. The example commands below are meant to be entered into an MSYS window (not Command Prompt). I downloaded the FFmpeg source and unpacked it.

Preparing External Libraries for FFMpeg

FFMpeg can be linked with external libraries to add features to FFmpeg. I am adding most features to FFMpeg by compiling additional libraries. Most of these libraries are also covered in my posts on compiling MPlayer and Mencoder.

1. Compression Libraries: Zlib and bzLib
   
   Get the zlib source (zlib127.zip), unzip and compile it:
   
   

   unzip zlib127.zip
   cd zlib-1.2.7/
   make -f win32/Makefile.gcc
   cp -iv zlib1.dll /mingw/bin
   cp -iv zconf.h zlib.h /mingw/include
   cp -iv libz.a /mingw/lib
   cp -iv libz.dll.a /mingw/lib

   
   
   

   Optionally, get bzip2 source from bzip.org and compile it like this:

   
   

   tar xzvf bzip2-1.0.6.tar.gz
   cd bzip2-1.0.6
   make
   cp bzlib.h /mingw/include/
   cp libbz2.a /mingw/lib

   
   
   
2. libgsm
   
   Download gsm-1.0.13.tar.bz2, unpack and compile it as follows:
   
   

   tar xzvf gsm-1.0.13.tar.bz2
   cd gsm-1.0-pl13/
   make

   
   

   Just ignore the compile errors with fchmod and fchown when trying to build applications. Copy the header and static library to /mingw:

   
   

   mkdir /mingw/include/gsm
   cp inc/gsm.h /mingw/include/gsm
   cp lib/libgsm.a /mingw/lib

   
   
   
3. LAME is an excellent MP3 encoder. LAME makes use of the nasm assembler if available. So download yasm and save it as /mingw/bin/nasm.exe. Then, download the LAME source from lame.sf.net and compile it like this.
   
   

   ./configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-expopt=full
   
   make
   
   make install

   
   
   
4. OGG, Vorbis, Speex and Theora
   

   The source code for these libraries can be obtained from xiph.org. Compile them each like this:

   
   

   ./configure --prefix=/mingw
   make
   make install

   
   

   As for speex, use the version 1.2rc1 or later.

   
   
   
5. FAAC
   

   FAAC is an MPEG-4 AAC audio encoder. Get the source (faac-1.28.tar.gz) and unpack the package. Then, edit Makefile.am:
   

   SUBDIRS = include libfaac

   
   

   Also, edit the line beginning with AC_OUTPUT in the file configure.in:
   

   AC_OUTPUT(libfaac/Makefile include/Makefile Makefile)

   
   

   Then, compile FAAC like this
   

   sh bootstrap
   ./configure --prefix=/mingw
   make
   make install

   
   
   
6. XviD is a popular video encoder used to create movie files distributed in p2p networks. Xvid can use yasm assembler to build optimized binaries if found (/mingw/bin/yasm.exe). Get the XviD source from xvid.org and compile as follows:
   
   

   tar xzvf xvidcore-1.3.2.tar.gz
   cd xvidcore/build/generic
   ./configure --prefix=/mingw
   make
   make install

   
   
   

   If you encounter "unrecognized command-line option -mno-cygwin" errors, open the file platform.inc in a text editor and delete "-mno-cygwin". Then, run make and make install again.

   
   
   

   Copy the import library for xvidcore.dll:

   
   

   cp -iv \=build/xvidcore.dll.a /mingw/lib/libxvidcore.a

   
   
   
7. x264 is yet another good video encoder. x264 requires YASM to build an optimized executable. So get yasm and save it as /mingw/bin/yasm.exe. Then, compile x264 like this:
   
   

   configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-win32thread --extra-cflags="-DX264_VERSION=20100422"
   
   make
   
   make install
   
   cp -iv x264.h x264_config.h /mingw/include
   
   cp -iv libx264.a /mingw/lib
   
   cp -iv x264.pc /mingw/lib/pkgconfig

   
   
   
8. Compile librtmp as shown in this post.
   
   

Building FFMpeg Statically

You need pr.exe from MYS coreutils package (coreutils-5.97-3-msys-1.0.13-ext.tar.lzma). I configured ffmpeg with the following command:

CPPFLAGS='-DHAVE_INT32_T' ./configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-avfilter --enable-w32threads --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-memalign-hack --enable-bzlib --enable-libfaac --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib --disable-debug

-DHAVE_INT32_T is used to allow static FAAC to be linked. Then, I began compilation and installation:

make
make install

Compiling FFmpeg Dynamically

Some Windows applications, such as Audacity, uses FFmpeg libraries when available. If you want to compile FFmpeg dynamically, append --enable-shared --disable-static to the ./configure command for FFmpeg.

./configure --prefix=/mingw --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-avfilter --enable-w32threads --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-memalign-hack --enable-bzlib --enable-libfaac --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-librtmp --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib --enable-shared --disable-static --disable-debug

If you get "int32_t" error when compiling libfaac.o, open /mingw/include/faac.h and insert the following line:

#include <stdint.h>

When I built mplayer with --enable-static and --disable-ffmpeg_a options to force linking with shared ffmpeg libraries, I had to rename ffmpeg libraries so their names end in *.a.

cd /mingw/lib
cp -iv libavcodec.dll.a libavcodec.a
cp -iv libavformat.dll.a libavformat.a
cp -iv libavutil.dll.a libavutil.a
cp -iv libpostproc.dll.a libpostproc.a
cp -iv libswscale.dll.a libswscale.a

Setting Up Cygwin For C/C++ Software Development on Windows

Cygwin provides a Unix-like environment for Windows users. Cygwin is useful for people who want to learn Unix or popular Linux without having to install Unix or Linux. Cygwin can also be used to port Linux applications to Windows or develop genuine Windows applications. To install Cygwin, download setup.exe from the Cygwin website and run it.

Cygwin Packages for Software Development

In addition to the default packages, select the following packages for common development environment:

• bison
  
• gettext-devel
  
• libtool
  
• make
  
• patch
  
• pkg-config
  

To select a package for installation, type the name of the package in the Search box, expand the categories by clicking a plus, and clicking on the package until its version number shows up.

If you want to develop software applications that depend on cygwin1.dll (which emulates Unix on Windows), install one of the following packages. This is when you want to port Linux applications to Windows with little modification.

• gcc-g++
  
  outdated version 3.4.4
  
• gcc4-g++
  
  GCC 4.x that links applications with cygwin1.dll

If you want to develop pure Windows applications, install one of the following packages.

• mingw-gcc-g++
  
  The original MinGW compiler from mingw.org can't build 64-bit applications.
  
• mingw64-i686-gcc-g++
  
  New MinGW compiler from mingw-w64.sourceforge.net.
  
• mingw64-x86_64-gcc-g++
  
  Install these to develop 64-bit Windows applications.
  

When you see the Resolving Dependencies window, just accept and click Next.

Setting HOME Variable

Setting the environment variable %HOME% is useful for various reasons. First of all, it allows regular users to compile freely in their user folder without requiring access to C:\Cygwin. Secondly, it allows users to save user-specific configuration in their user folder. For example, user configuration files such as .profile, .gtkrc-2.0, .fonts.conf and .pango-aliases can be saved in the folder specified by %HOME%.

Setting Up mingw* compiler for Cygwin

The file C:\Cygwin\etc\fstab is used to set up mount points in Cygwin. If you installed mingw64 packages, open the file C:\Cygwin\etc\fstab in a text editor and append the following line.

/usr/i686-w64-mingw32/sys-root/mingw /mingw none bind

Start the Cygwin terminal and type the following commands to set up Cygwin for Windows compilation.

ln -s /usr/bin/i686-w64-mingw32-g++.exe /usr/i686-w64-mingw32/bin/g++.exe
ln -s /usr/bin/i686-w64-mingw32-gcc.exe /usr/i686-w64-mingw32/bin/gcc.exe

Also, set up some environment variables.

export CFLAGS="-march=pentium2 -mtune=i586 -mthreads -mms-bitfields -O2"
export CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium2 -mtune=i586 -mthreads -mms-bitfields -O2"
export CPPFLAGS="-I/mingw/include"
export LDFLAGS="-L/mingw/lib -Wl,--enable-auto-image-base -Wl,--enable-auto-import -Wl,--enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc"
export PATH=/mingw/bin:/usr/i686-w64-mingw32/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/mingw/lib/pkgconfig

Setting Up gcc* Compiler for Cygwin

If you installed the gcc4 compiler (as opposed to mingw*), set up some environment variables to customize your build environment. I usually type the following commands:

CC="/usr/bin/gcc.exe"
CFLAGS="-march=pentium2 -mtune=i586 -mthreads -mms-bitfields -O2"
CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/include"
CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium2 -mtune=i586 -mthreads -mms-bitfields -O2"
LDFLAGS="-L/usr/lib -Wl,--enable-auto-image-base -Wl,--enable-auto-import -Wl,--enable-runtime-pseudo-reloc"
export CC CFLAGS CPPFLAGS CXXFLAGS LDFLAGS