1 INSTALL file for the Windows9x/2k/XP version of vlc, the VideoLAN Client
3 Running VideoLAN Client
4 =======================
6 If you have already built vlc (see below) or are using a binary release,
9 You can also run vlc from a dos command box, in which case you'll be able
10 to use the command line arguments. You can obtain a list of these command
11 line arguments by typing 'vlc --help'.
12 To store a debug log of the current vlc session, you can use
13 'vlc -vvvvv --intf=logger nameofyourvideofile', but this will unfortunatly
14 disable the GUI. You will end-up with a vlc.log file in your current directory.
16 If you want to play a DVD, run vlc and click on the Disc option in the
17 interface. You then have to type your drive letter followed by a colon in
18 the 'Device name' box (eg. 'D:' if this is the letter for your dvdrom drive).
20 Building VideoLAN Client from the source code
21 =============================================
23 If you want to do the tricky job of building vlc from sources, you can do it
26 - natively on Windows, using MSYS+MINGW (www.mingw.org)
27 (MSYS is a minimal build environnement to compile unixish projects under
28 windoze. It provides all the common unix tools like sh, gmake...)
30 - natively on Windows, using cygwin (www.cygwin.com) with or without the
33 - or on Linux, using the mingw32 cross-compiler
35 Getting the right tools
36 =======================
38 - cross-compiling with mingw32:
39 All the necessary tools you need can be found on the videolan web site:
40 http://www.videolan.org/vlc/windows.html
42 You first need to download a linux cross-compiler version of mingw32.
43 (for Debian GNU/Linux users, there is a mingw32 package)
45 You must also not forget to install the extra development packages if you want
46 to build the DirectX, GTK and SDL plugins.
48 - compiling natively on Windoze with MSYS+MINGW:
49 You will need to download and install the latest MSYS (version 1.0.7 as
51 The installation is really easy. Begin with the MSYS auto-installer and once
52 this is done, extract MINGW into c:\msys\1.0\mingw. You also have to remember
53 to remove the make utility included with MINGW as it conflicts with the one
54 from MSYS (just rename or remove c:\msys\1.0\mingw\bin\make.exe).
56 http://www.mingw.org/download.shtml
57 http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/MSYS-1.0.7-i686-2.exe
58 http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/MinGW-1.1.tar.gz
60 You must also not forget to install the extra development packages if you want
61 to build the DirectX, GTK and SDL plugins.
62 (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/windows.html)
64 - compiling natively on Windoze with cygwin:
65 You will need to download and run the setup.exe app from cygwin's web site
67 I'm personnaly running the experimental distribution (and gcc-3.2) with the
68 exception of the autoconf tool for which I'm using the autoconf-devel-2.52-4
69 package (I had problems with 2.53a-1). You will need to make sure you install
70 at least the gcc-mingw, mingw-runtime and w32api packages.
72 NOTE: by default, the GTK package is configured to be installed in
73 /usr/local/gtk-win32, if you want to change this path, then you need to edit
74 the gtk-win32/bin/gtk-config file and change "gtk_dir=" accordingly.
75 The same is true for the SDL package, it is installed in
76 /usr/local/SDL-1.2.3-win32 by default and you need to change "prefix=" in
77 SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin/sdl-config if you plan to extract the
78 archive in a different directory.
80 - compiling natively on Windoze with cygwin:
81 You will need to download and install cygwin (www.cygwin.com).
83 You must also not forget to install the extra development packages if you want
84 to build the DirectX, GTK and SDL plugins.
85 (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/windows.html)
90 The best way to configure the build process of vlc is to use the
93 See `./configure --help' for more information.
95 If you are cross-compiling from Debian, you can use something
99 CC=i586-mingw32msvc-gcc CXX=i586-mingw32msvc-g++ \
100 ./configure --host=i586-mingw32msvc --build=i386-linux \
101 --with-gtk-config-path=/usr/local/gtk-win32/bin \
102 --with-sdl-config-path=/usr/local/SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin \
103 --with-directx=/usr/local/dxheaders \
104 --with-dvdcss-tree=../libdvdcss-win
106 If you are cross-compiling using the mingw32 package provided by
107 www.videolan.org, you have to use something along those lines:
110 CC=i586-mingw32msvc-gcc CXX=i586-mingw32msvc-g++ \
111 PATH=/usr/local/cross-tools/bin:$PATH \
112 ./configure --host=i586-mingw32msvc --build=i386-linux \
113 --with-gtk-config-path=/usr/local/gtk-win32/bin \
114 --with-sdl-config-path=/usr/local/SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin \
115 --with-directx=/usr/local/dxheaders \
116 --with-dvdcss-tree=../libdvdcss-win
118 If you are compiling natively on Windoze, then you can use something
122 --with-gtk-config-path=/c/dev/gtk-win32/bin \
123 --with-sdl-config-path=/c/dev/SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin \
124 --with-directx=/c/dev/dxheaders \
125 --with-dvdcss-tree=../libdvdcss-win
127 If you are using cygwin, you can build vlc with or without the unix emulation
128 layer (without is usually better). To build without the emulaion layer, use
131 CC="gcc -mno-cygwin" CXX="g++ -mno-cygwin" \
133 --with-gtk-config-path=/cygdrive/c/dev/gtk-win32/bin \
134 --with-sdl-config-path=/cygdrive/c/dev/SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin \
135 --with-directx=/cygdrive/c/dev/dxheaders \
136 --with-dvdcss-tree=../libdvdcss-win
137 If you want to use the emulation layer, then just omit the CC="gcc -mno-cygwin"
138 CXX="g++ -mno-cygwin" line.
140 Note: when using the --with-dvdcss-tree you need to compile the libdvdcss tree
143 Building VideoLAN Client
144 ========================
146 Have a look at the generated Makefile.opts file, you may want to choose
147 which modules will be compiled as plugins, and which ones will remain in
148 the core application. The configure script tries to guess for you.
150 Once configured, to build vlc you have to:
152 If you are cross-compiling from Debian or compiling natively on Windoze,
153 then just run `make'.
155 If you are cross-compiling using the mingw32 package provided by
156 www.videolan.org, run `PATH=/usr/local/cross-tools/bin:$PATH make'.
158 Building Win32 interface with bcc32 (Borland's compiler)
159 ========================================================
160 (This stage is only necessary if you want to use the Win32 native interface.
161 If you are happy with the GTK interface, then you can skip this section)
163 1) Compile vlc as usual.
165 2) From the plugin\win32 directory, use Borland C++ command-line tools
167 bpr2mak intfwin.bpr -s \
168 | sed 's#^LIBPATH = .*#&;$$(RELEASELIBPATH)# ; s#^USERDEFINES = .*#& -DWIN32 -D__PLUGIN__ -DMODULE_NAME_IS_intfwin -DMODULE_NAME=intfwin#' \
169 > intfwin.mak // Create a makefile from intfwin.bpr
170 make -fintfwin // It's Borland's make utility !
172 3) This should create a intfwin.so
173 You can remove any other generated file.
176 Well done, now you're ready to use vlc!
177 =======================================