How to build a complete image for your dreambox

Devilfish · 25-03-2008

How to build a complete image for your dreambox

Choosing your Platform

First of all, you will need a platform to create your image. There are many versions of linux that you can use, I have used VMWare with Ubuntu and also a dedicated linux PC running Ubuntu. Both variations will work just as well.

If you want to use VMWare, you can download it at _www.vmware.com/download/player

If you want to use a dedicated PC, either with Ubuntu as the main OS or as a dual-boot system, you can download Ubuntu for free at _www.ubuntu.co

The VMWare method is probably easier if you are trying it out for the first time. You can always uninstall it if it's not for you.

Configuring your Ubuntu

The following packages need to be installed in your ubuntu before you start creating any images.

Click on System, Administration, Synaptic Package Manager.

You will need to search for the following packages and install them:

- cvs
- autoconf
- automake
- libtool
- gettext
- make
- makeinfo (texinfo)
- tar
- bunzip2 (bzip2)
- gunzip (gzip)
- patch
- infocmp (ncurses-bin / ncurses-devel)
- gcc
- g++
- flex
- bison
- pkg-config
- wget
- libpng2 or libpng3 (DirectFB)
- ftpd (or other ftp server)

The latest versions of these packages should work ok. Click Apply to install them.

Compiling an Image

Now we'll move on to downloading and compiling our image. Most of this will be copy and paste but you'll get used to the commands.

Open a terminal window and paste the following commands:

Creating a working directory

Code:

mkdir tuxbox-cvs

Change into the working directory

Code:

cd tuxbox-cvs

The following can now be copied and pasted in, line by line. Wait for the command prompt to be displayed before pasting the next line.

Code:

export CVS_RSH=ssh

Code:

cvs -d anoncvs@cvs.tuxbox.org:/cvs/tuxbox -z3 co -P -rdreambox .

### Note the dot at the end of the command, this is important ###

Code:

cd cdk

Code:

chmod 755 prepare

Now we need to alter the 'prepare' file to personalise our image

Go to /tuxbox-cvs/cdk and open the 'prepare' file with the text editor. It should look like this:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
cd .. && CURRENT_PATH=`pwd`;
cd cdk
./autogen.sh;
# boxtype dm500 dm56x0 or dm7000
TYPE=$1
if test -z "$TYPE"; then
    TYPE=dm7000                   //change to box type
fi
./configure \
    --with-boxtype=$TYPE \
    --with-webif=standard \       //change to webif=expert
    --prefix=$CURRENT_PATH/root \
    --with-cvsdir=$CURRENT_PATH \
    --with-cpu=405 \
    --enable-maintainer-mode \
    --with-targetruleset=flash \
    --with-epg=private \ 
    --with-mhw-epg=no \           //change to -epg=yes
    --with-flashtool=standard \
    --with-reiserfs=no \             //change to -epg=yes
    --with-ext-flashtool=yes \
    --with-enigma-debug=yes

Change the lines in red. Save the file and return to the terminal window.

Back to the copy and pasting.

Code:

./prepare dm500

Code:

make checkout

Code:

make dreamboximage_root

The last command will take a long time to complete, depending on the speed of your PC and internet; up to about 2 hours.

The following command creates the folders that you normally see on your box, i.e. /bin, /etc, /var, /var_init, etc.

Code:

make rebuild-flash

The following command compresses all your folders into an .img file.

Code:

make flash-compress

If all has gone ok and you didn't get any errors, you should have a file called complete.img in /tuxbox-cvs/root/cdkflash. This is your actual image file that you flash to your box. There will be two other .img files but don't worry about them.

Now this will be a basic image, no addons or emu managers or anything. It will be like the dream original image only up-to-date.

Next you need to modify it to your needs.

Good luck!

**dago** · 25-03-2008

@devilfish, nice one m8.
regards

brathnach · 01-04-2008

Interesting stuff devilfish!! Would anyone know any other places worth reading up on for similar instruction/tutorials regarding building the image files?

thanks

**mhku** · 01-04-2008

If you google the title of this thread you'll find it posted on lots of forums.

The original seems to be somewhere here:

_http://cvs.tuxbox.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/tuxbox/cdk/Makefile.am?rev=1.464&sortby=date&view=log

Devilfish · 02-04-2008

The guide in the first post has slightly more information than on the tuxbox site.

_http://www.dreamboxtips.com

This seems to have a lot of guides on it and seems to be updated regularly.

IMnobody · 29-06-2008

WOW, Just to see if I could do it from the instructions, I tried it.
This was the easiest done, yet most complex thing, I've tried is quite some time.
And, it appears to have worked, except, one of the DL sites failed to connect, and timed out, after 20 attempts. So, I think it why Ngrab wasn't included. It doesn't look like a big error, but, how do I fix this?
I'm still a little scared to test the image it produced, till it compiles without any error.
If my theory is anywhere close, the Makefile.am, is the heart of the image build process. Can I change it, to the latest version in the CVS repository, and, what else needs to change in conjunction with that swap?

Oh, I did it under Simply Mepis which is "Debian ETCH" based.

thanks
IM

rolks · 04-08-2008

done. what next how to put emus in place and control of them.thank you

mehdiest · 09-12-2008

hi. thanks for your help.
but i have VMware Server 2.0.0 . it can works? or i have to use VMW palyer only?
is only for Enigma 1?can i this method for Enigma2?

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How to build a complete image for your dreambox A range of guides, sticky and useful threads, plus FAQs for the Dreambox community - Home of the famous "Ultimate Idiot Guide", made by idiots, for idiots.