Building jive from source

**gordonb3** · 2021-03-20, 13:19

To bugfix some issues I'm trying to build jive from source. I cloned the squeezeplay repository from github and checked out public/7.7 where the commit statement hints that this should be the version that runs on my squeezebox hardware. The sources appear to be pretty messed up though and I had to solve various C language errors to create a valid binary.

So the first thing I noticed is that the resulting binary does not link to the same libraries as the one in the original software. It turns out that most of the missing libraries are linked statically on various levels and for some obscure reason the sources default to link to portaudio which is what you would need on Windows but not on squeezeos. Another thing I noticed is that support for spotify is stripped. Not a big issue for me as I don't use that, but I suppose this is also true for the community version?

Last thing: when I run the self-built jive on Radio the screen is rotated 90 degrees. There appears to be a configure key to fix that, but why would it prefer to run on a vertical screen where every commercially sold Squeezebox has a horizontal oriented screen?

**mherger** · 2021-03-20, 22:57

Unfortunately I won't really be able to help you... You should try to
get ralphy over here.

> Another thing I noticed is that support for spotify is stripped. Not a
> big issue for me as I don't use that, but I suppose this is also true
> for the community version?

Native Spotify support for the Radio and the Touch has been dropped by
Spotify several years ago. Thus no need to keep it around.

> Last thing: when I run the self-built jive on Radio the screen is
> rotated 90 degrees. There appears to be a configure key to fix that, but
> why would it prefer to run on a vertical screen where every commercially
> sold Squeezebox has a horizontal oriented screen?

Some archeology here: the first device to feature Squeezeplay was
neither Radio, nor Touch, but the SB Controller - project name "jive".
And it obviously had a portrait mode display.

**philippe_44** · 2021-03-20, 23:19

Originally Posted by mherger

Some archeology here: the first device to feature Squeezeplay was
neither Radio, nor Touch, but the SB Controller - project name "jive".
And it obviously had a portrait mode display.

And the controller was amazingly ahead of its time in term of UX.

**gordonb3** · 2021-03-21, 02:31

I see.

That doesn't explain though why the branch in which the last commit equals the version of the last official firmware for Radio builds a completely different binary and as stated does not contain the source for a feature that was supposedly dropped some time later (because ldd shows that it is present in the original binary).

**mherger** · 2021-03-21, 04:48

> That doesn't explain though why the branch in which the last commit

Well, I told you I wasn't of help :-).

> equals the version of the last official firmware for Radio builds a
> completely different binary and as stated does not contain the source
> for a feature that was supposedly dropped some time later (because ldd
> shows that it is present in the original binary).

The original Squeezeplay public repository never was "complete": there
are components, like eg. the Spotify libraries, some codecs etc., which
can't be made available publicly for legal reasons. These are hosted in
a separate repository. Therefore you'll never be able to build an
identical firmware.

Ralphy did all of this already. He figured out the process required to
build working firmwares.

**ralphy** · 2021-03-21, 05:26

I've summarized the missing source code and what I did to work around them as part of the changelog for the community firmware (CF). Start at the end and read up.

You'll also find URLs to the two git repositories that I use to build the CF at the bottom of the changelog.

The radio jive rotation is done in the squeezeplay svn bitbake recipe here.

To build squeezeplay/jive for desktop usage and testing, take a look at my squeezeplay repository.

**gordonb3** · 2021-03-21, 09:57

Aha! Had not tried that yet but the screen is correct on Touch which turns out to run armv5 code as well (I thought I'd need an armv6 dev environment for that).

So I'm guessing that the community version leaves all the existing libraries on the player obsolete as well?

**gordonb3** · 2021-03-21, 14:16

Oh... This is weird...

With the self-built the Touch does not show the album image in the default view when it is (also) encapsulated in the audio file (at least not with flac).

**ralphy** · 2021-03-22, 05:43

Originally Posted by gordonb3

Aha! Had not tried that yet but the screen is correct on Touch which turns out to run armv5 code as well (I thought I'd need an armv6 dev environment for that).

So I'm guessing that the community version leaves all the existing libraries on the player obsolete as well?

No, the community firmware is a complete replacement and provides a full linux OS as well as jive.

**ralphy** · 2021-03-22, 05:49

Originally Posted by gordonb3

Oh... This is weird...

With the self-built the Touch does not show the album image in the default view when it is (also) encapsulated in the audio file (at least not with flac).

I have encountered that before with the desktop linux squeezeplay and can be caused by using png library versions newer than 1.2.x.

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