WDTV Tools » development

Meta Discussion: Future Structure of Homebrew Software for the WDTV

Elmar Weber — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:26:28 +0000

There is a meta discussion going on over at the WDTV Forum about how to organize and structure the homebrew development for the WDTV in the future. Check it out and post what you think.

Update On Available Modifications for the WDTV

Elmar Weber — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 19:26:18 +0000

It’s been a month since the last update on new and existing modifications.

The existing ones have been upgraded and improved, take a look at LaurentG’s mod and juliojs’s work (or his blog (spanish)).
Regarding the non OSD mods, ninja76’s torrent downloader has also lift off and makes progress. realtebo’s IRC download client is also there but hasn’t had any updates lately.

Regarding new developments there is a thumbnail cache from BMD_Online that speeds up when you are using the thumbnail view to browse your media.

Probably the most exciting latest development is pibos WDTVExt project. He has actually managed to tap into the WDTV GUI to modify the main menu and enable new plug-ins. There are already some examples like a weather plug-in.

There is also a very good new OSD Mod from lilibabe, very slick design:

There is ton more but most are basic extensions for WDLXTV or very specific applications. A more or less complete list is managed in the forums at http://wdtvforum.com/main/index.php?topic=1217.0.

Compile Kernel Modules for the WDTV – A Tutorial for the WDTV Tools VMware Image

Elmar Weber — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:05:14 +0000

As written in the introductory article for the WDTV Tools VMware Image I’m writing a series of tutorials for it. The first tutorial is available at the WDTV Tools Wiki. The tutorial describes how to compile new kernel modules for the WDTV and demonstrated it by adding Bluetooth support.

A future tutorial will show how to compile Bluetooth software and create an application image that contains all the software required to interface the WDTV with other Bluetooth devices.

WDTV Tools Development VMware Image

Elmar Weber — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:44:47 +0000

I created a VMware image based on Debian Linux that already contains everything to get you started with development for the WDTV. The focus is on getting programs compiled, but you can also use it to create the filesystem images for your OSD mods and applications.

The image is hosted at SourceForge as RAR and ZIP file for your convenience. The VMware image extracts to about 900 MB, so make sure you have enough space available before extracting.

You can use the VM with a number of VMware products, the easiest way to use the VM is VMware Player. It also supports VMware Workstation >= 5.0 and VMware Server >=1.0. If you use Virtual Box or another virtualization solution it can probably import the VMware image.

The VM has no graphical UI because you need to do all the stuff in the command line anyway. You can either use the console directly in the VMware program or you can connect to the VM via SSH (for Windows I recommend PuTTY). The VMware’s IP address is shown before you login. The username is “wdtv” and the password “!develop” (both without “”). If a password is required anywhere it is the same (e.g. root, but you should use sudo).
If you work within the VMware, so this does not apply for SSH, the default keyboard layout is currently German, which means you will find the “!” above the one (”Shift + 1″).

The WDTV Tools Subversion repository is already integrated into the VMware, so you can fetch updates to the toolchain or kernel with ease. The mipsel C compiler for the WDTV is already in the path, the toolchain is located in the wdtv. directory.

A series of future tutorials that shows basic stuff like compiling new software for the WDTV and distributing it, will be based on this VMware.