Hi,
first of all: a quick but not so clean way to install Freevo: download the rc4 and the runtime tgz. Unpack free-1.4rc4, go into the directory and call './freevo install path-to-the-runtime-tgz'
I've got to agree with Nate, it used to be a lot easier to install Freevo. The "standalone runtime" which I created has fallen a bit out of fashion since I was involved with it.
But I don't see it as the kludge/bad hack as it has been described as. It was a very easy way to use Freevo, and it is fairly standard for larger apps like Open Office, Mozilla and Acrobat reader (etc, etc) to use a single binary for installation, instead of RPMs etc.
The most immediate remedy would be to update the website installation page to describe in more detail exactly how the different installation methods work (runtime, RPM, source, etc). Maybe it should point directly to the download files instead of the SF download page which is very confusing.
Next, the runtime could be streamlined as a single binary again. It should be very easy to install, maybe have only a "install.sh" or similar at the top level and stick the rest of freevo+runtime in subfolders. Also, include MPlayer again, so it is possible to do more useful stuff out of the box (yes, I know there are patent issues etc, so this needs to be done right).
Now, *who* should do all of this? Anyone who feels like it, but I still think that everyone should work on whatever they think is fun, so don't take my comments as "you have to go and do this and this" even if you've worked on some of the areas before. I'll see how much I can help with, but as usual I don't want to make any promises.
Regarding the choice of Python:
I picked Python when I started the project by myself two years ago. It looked powerful and I wanted to learn Python which I hadn't used much before. It shouldn't really matter to the users, do you know what Open Office is written in? But I think it has turned out very well, complex code can be written much faster compared to C (which I'm pretty good at).
/ Krister
"Nate" wrote:
You need to start with a "stock" distro of Red Hat and Mandrake and go from there when you send out rpm's of this.
I know. Redhat, Mandrake and SuSE are common distros. But they use
RPM, and RPM sucks. As you know, rpm tells you what's missing, Gentoo
and Debian don't tell you that, they install the missing packages and
that's it. Much simpler. That's one reason why I switched to Gentoo.
We run Mandrake 9.2 and thought it would go easy, your instructions seemed clear, but then I run into nothing but problems and lacking docs.
I tried the RPM and the tar.gz file, no luck. I tried to install ALL the rpms in your download area figuring that was the problem, nothing but "Failed dependencies".
That's why rpm sucks :-(
Our main problem is that the packages Freevo needs are not in the
Mandrake distribution or don't even have RPMs. Some stuff may also
need different rpms for the different distros. I asked on the mailing
list to help us out here, but noone answered. I sort of gave up on
this.
Your docs say nothing about needing anything other than the tar.gz file, and most other projects just compile and run on the standard distributions. Yes, I have installed a lot of tar.gz type stuff with x windows, gtk, qt and such, and even fixed a few things to get them to work.
Read the INSTALL file in the freevo-1.4rc4 tgz, it should contain a list of all needed stuff.
I know it's fun to be a geek and do everything your way, and make everyone else have to struggle up to your "level" of installed RPM's, but this is insane.
Do you want other people to use this software, or only extreme geeks?
Other people, sure. But I refuse to install Redhat, Manfrake and SuSE only to build rpms. That's something other people should do (not you, a geek using this distros).
[EMAIL PROTECTED] freevo-1.4rc4]$ ./freevo Traceback (most recent call last): File "./src/main.py", line 69, in ? from xml.utils import qp_xml ImportError: No module named utils
Not all requirements of Freevo are installed on your system Please check the INSTALL file for more informations
WHAT OPTIONS???? WHAT????????????? WHERE ?????????
there is an INSTALL file in rc4.
why did you pick some obscure programming language like python to do this in? Even Java would have been better (yuck)
I didn't pick it, but that's not the point. Python is a great
language, but like other projects, too, we have some
dependencies. It's not our fault that RedHat doesn't include Python
XML bindings.
Copy to freevo-users list: if you use RedHat, Mandrake or SuSE, we need good and working rpms and a good way to install them.
Dischi
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