UBUNTU/Installation

Tips for Installing VDR on Ubuntu

This article contains tips and advice for setting up VDR and plugins on Ubuntu. Ubuntu releases are based on snapshots of Debian Unstable; therefore the following may be of use to Debian users too. Indeed, later in this article we show how to compile bleading edge versions of the VDR packages from the Debian VDR and DVB Packaging Project.

Installing from Binary Packages

VDR has been available in the Ubuntu Universe repository since its first release.

• Ubuntu Packages

Before you can install VDR packages, you must first add the Universe repository to your Apt sources list. Now you can use Aptitude or Synaptic to search for available vdr packages. eg.

richard@lazar:~$ aptitude search ^vdr
p   vdr                             - Video Disk Recorder for DVB cards
v   vdr-daemon                      -
id  vdr-dev                         - Video Disk Recorder for DVB cards
v   vdr-kbd                         -
v   vdr-lirc                        -
p   vdr-plugin-bitstreamout         - Plugin to vdr for playing AC3-Sound via yo
p   vdr-plugin-console              - Plugin for vdr that implements a virtual t
p   vdr-plugin-dvd                  - Plugin to vdr for playing DVD's
p   vdr-plugin-examples             - Plugins for vdr to show some possible feat
p   vdr-plugin-femon                - DVB frontend status monitor plugin for vdr
p   vdr-plugin-freecell             - Plugin to vdr that implements the card gam
p   vdr-plugin-games                - Plugin to vdr for playing tetris, snake an
p   vdr-plugin-mp3                  - Plugin to vdr for playing mp3's
p   vdr-plugin-osdteletext          - Teletext plugin for vdr
p   vdr-plugin-prefermenu           - Plugin that implements a preferred channel
p   vdr-plugin-remote               - Plugin for vdr to support the built-in rem
p   vdr-plugin-sky                  - Plugin for using a Sky Digibox with vdr
p   vdr-plugin-vcd                  - Plugin to vdr for playing (S)VCD's
p   vdr-plugin-weather              - Weather plugin for vdr
v   vdr-rcu                         -
p   vdradmin                        - Web-based administration tool for vdr

• If you have a fully featured DVB card (one with a builtin MPEG decoder chip) then these packages will probably be all you need to get started. Use Aptitude or Synaptic to install the base "vdr" package and then skip to the configuration section
• If on the other hand you have bought a so called budget DVB card, there is more work to be done. Read the next section.

Installing from Debian Package Sources

Instead of simply installing the standard binary packages described above you can instead compile your own packages using Debian packaging tools and sources from the Debian VDR and DVB Packaging Project. This way you get a greater selection of and much more up to date versions of VDR packages plus easy package installation, setup, and if necessary removal.

If you have a budget DVB card and need to use a software decoder plugin such as xinelibout or the DXR3 MPEG decoding device plugin, this section may be particularly usefule to you.

First read [1] and then follow the instructions below.

• Install svn-buildpackage and its dependencies. This lives in the Ubuntu Universe repository, so if you haven't already done so, add Universe to your sources.lst

richard@lazar:~$ sudo aptitude install svn-buildpackage
Password:
Reading package lists... Done
...etc...

• Tell svn-buildpackage where to put compiled packages and where to find source tarballs.

richard@lazar:~$ echo "svn-override=buildArea=${HOME}/src/debian-vdr/build-area,origDir=${HOME}/src/debian-vdr/tarballs" > .svn-buildpackage.conf

• Setup a folder to do the package building in.

richard@lazar:~$ mkdir -p src/debian-vdr
richard@lazar:~$ cd src/debian-vdr/
richard@lazar:~/src/debian-vdr$

• Check out the tarballs. There are alot of them and some are quite large, so this may take a long time.

richard@lazar:~/src/debian-vdr$  svn co svn://svn.debian.org/svn/pkg-vdr-dvb/tarballs
A    tarballs/vdr-plugin-nordlichtsepg_0.8a.orig.tar.gz
A    tarballs/vdr-plugin-osdtest256_0.1.0.orig.tar.gz
A    tarballs/vdr-plugin-freecell_0.0.2.orig.tar.gz
A    tarballs/vdr-plugin-xine_0.7.9.orig.tar.gz
...etc...

• Check out the debian build scripts.

richard@lazar:~/src/debian-vdr$ svn co svn://svn.debian.org/svn/pkg-vdr-dvb/vdr/vdr/trunk vdr/vdr
A    vdr/vdr/debian
A    vdr/vdr/debian/control
A    vdr/vdr/debian/config-loader.sh
...etc...