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 in the 'Device name'
18 box (eg. 'D' if this is the letter for your dvdrom drive).
19 ( !WARNING: you have to be in administrator mode (for now) on Win2k/XP or the
22 Building VideoLAN Client from the source code
23 =============================================
25 If you want to do the tricky job of building vlc from sources, you can do it
28 - natively on Windows, using MSYS+MINGW (www.mingw.org)
29 (MSYS is a minimal build environnement to compile unixish projects under
30 windoze. It provides all the common unix tools like sh, gmake...)
32 - or on Linux, using the mingw32 cross-compiler
34 Getting the right tools
35 =======================
37 - cross-compiling with mingw32:
38 All the necessary tools you need can be found on the videolan web site:
39 http://www.videolan.org/vlc/windows.html
41 You first need to download a linux cross-compiler version of mingw32.
42 (for Debian GNU/Linux users, there is a mingw32 package)
44 You must also not forget to install the extra development packages if you want
45 to build the DirectX, GTK and SDL plugins.
47 - compiling natively on Windoze:
48 You will need to download and install the latest MSYS (version 1.0.7 as
50 The installation is really easy. Begin with the MSYS auto-installer and once
51 this is done, extract MINGW into c:\msys\1.0\mingw. You also have to remember
52 to remove the make utility included with MINGW as it conflicts with the one
53 from MSYS (just rename or remove c:\msys\1.0\mingw\bin\make.exe).
55 http://www.mingw.org/download.shtml
56 http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/MSYS-1.0.7-i686-2002.04.24-1.exe
57 http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/MinGW-1.1.tar.gz
59 You must also not forget to install the extra development packages if you want
60 to build the DirectX, GTK and SDL plugins.
61 (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/windows.html)
64 NOTE: by default, the GTK package is configured to be installed in
65 /usr/local/gtk-win32, if you want to change this path, then you need to edit
66 the gtk-win32/bin/gtk-config file and change "gtk_dir=" accordingly.
67 The same is true for the SDL package, it is installed in
68 /usr/local/SDL-1.2.3-win32 by default and you need to change "prefix=" in
69 SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin/sdl-config if you plan to extract the
70 archive in a different directory.
75 The best way to configure the build process of vlc is to use the
78 See `./configure --help' for more information.
80 If you are cross-compiling from Debian, you can use something
84 ./configure --host=i586-mingw32msvc --target=i586-mingw32msvc \
86 --with-gtk-config-path=/usr/local/gtk-win32/bin \
87 --with-sdl-config-path=/usr/local/SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin \
88 --with-directx=/usr/local/dxheaders \
89 --with-dvdcss-tree=../libdvdcss-win
91 If you are cross-compiling using the mingw32 package provided by
92 www.videolan.org, you have to use something along those lines:
94 CC=/usr/local/cross-tools/bin/i586-mingw32msvc-gcc \
95 PATH=/usr/local/cross-tools/bin:$PATH \
96 ./configure --host=i586-mingw32msvc --target=i586-mingw32msvc \
98 --with-gtk-config-path=/usr/local/gtk-win32/bin \
99 --with-sdl-config-path=/usr/local/SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin \
100 --with-directx=/usr/local/dxheaders \
101 --with-dvdcss-tree=../libdvdcss-win
103 If you are compiling natively on Windoze, then you can use something
106 --with-gtk-config-path=/c/dev/gtk-win32/bin \
107 --with-sdl-config-path=/c/dev/SDL-1.2.3-win32/i386-mingw32msvc/bin \
108 --with-directx=/c/dev/dxheaders \
109 --with-dvdcss-tree=../libdvdcss-win
111 Note: when using the --with-dvdcss-tree you need to compile the tree
114 Building VideoLAN Client
115 ========================
117 Have a look at the generated Makefile.opts file, you may want to choose
118 which modules will be compiled as plugins, and which ones will remain in
119 the core application. The configure script tries to guess for you.
121 Once configured, to build vlc you have to:
123 If you are cross-compiling from Debian or compiling natively on Windoze,
124 then just run `make'.
126 If you are cross-compiling using the mingw32 package provided by
127 www.videolan.org, run `PATH=/usr/local/cross-tools/bin:$PATH make'.
129 Building Win32 interface with bcc32 (Borland's compiler)
130 ========================================================
131 (This stage is only necessary if you want to use the Win32 native interface.
132 If you are happy with the GTK interface, then you can skip this section)
134 1) Compile vlc as usual.
136 2) From the plugin\win32 directory, use Borland C++ command-line tools
138 bpr2mak intfwin.bpr -s \
139 | sed 's#^LIBPATH = .*#&;$$(RELEASELIBPATH)# ; s#^USERDEFINES = .*#& -DWIN32 -D__PLUGIN__ -DMODULE_NAME_IS_intfwin -DMODULE_NAME=intfwin#' \
140 > intfwin.mak // Create a makefile from intfwin.bpr
141 make -fintfwin // It's Borland's make utility !
143 3) This should create a intfwin.so
144 You can remove any other generated file.
147 Well done, now you're ready to use vlc!
148 =======================================