+2006-03-16 Stefan Kost <ensonic@users.sf.net>
+
+ * docs/faq/cvs.xml:
+ * docs/faq/dependencies.xml:
+ * docs/faq/developing.xml:
+ * docs/faq/faq.xml:
+ * docs/faq/general.xml:
+ * docs/faq/getting.xml:
+ * docs/faq/legal.xml:
+ * docs/faq/troubleshooting.xml:
+ * docs/faq/using.xml:
+ Faq review and update.
+
2006-03-16 Jan Schmidt <thaytan@mad.scientist.com>
* gst/gstpad.c: (gst_pad_accept_caps), (gst_pad_alloc_buffer_full),
<sect1 id="chapter-cvs">
<title id="title-cvs">Building GStreamer from CVS</title>
- <qandaset>
+ <qandaset defaultlabel="qanda">
<qandaentry>
<question id="cvs-anon">
<para>
To check out the HEAD version of the core, use
<programlisting>
- cvs -d:pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/gstreamer co gstreamer
+ cvs -d:pserver:anoncvs@anoncvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/gstreamer co gstreamer
</programlisting>
This will create a directory "gstreamer" in your current directory.
If you want to get another module, replace the last "gstreamer" with the
name of the module.
</para>
+ <para>
+The <ulink url="http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/modules/">modules page</ulink>
+has a list of active ones together with a short description.
+ </para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<qandaentry>
<question id="autogen-libtool">
+ <label>I ran autogen.sh, but it fails with aclocal errors. What's wrong ?</label>
<para>
-I ran autogen.sh, but it fails with something like this:
<programlisting>
+ running aclocal -I m4 -I common/m4 ...
aclocal: configure.ac: 8: macro `AM_DISABLE_STATIC' not found in library
<sect1 id="chapter-dependencies">
<title id="title-dependencies">Dependencies</title>
- <qandaset>
+ <qandaset defaultlabel="qanda">
<qandaentry>
<question id="dependencies-why-so-many">
<para>
However, do realize that in no way you are forced to have all dependencies
installed. None of the core developers has all of them installed. GStreamer
-has only a few obligate dependencies : GLib 2.0, popt >= 1.6.0, and very
+has only a few obligate dependencies : GLib 2.0, liboil, and very
common stuff like glibc, a C compiler, and so on. All of the other
dependencies are optional.
</para>
<sect1 id="chapter-developing">
<title id="title-developing">Developing applications with GStreamer</title>
-
- <qandaset>
+ <qandaset defaultlabel="qanda">
<qandaentry>
<question id="developing-compile-programs">
&gst-uninstalled;
</programlisting>
If you put this script in your path, and symlink it to gst-cvs (if you want
-to develop against cvs HEAD) or to gst-0.6 (if you want to develop against the
-0.6 branch), it will automatically use the uninstalled version from that
+to develop against cvs HEAD) or to gst-0.8 (if you want to develop against the
+0.8 branch), it will automatically use the uninstalled version from that
directory.
</para>
<para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
-
- <qandaentry>
+ <qandaentry>
<question id="developing-gconf">
<para>How can I use GConf to get the system-wide defaults ?</para>
</question>
funny shell scripts are made to modify your shared object search path
and then run your program. For instance, to debug gst-launch, try
<programlisting>
-libtool gdb /path/to/gstreamer-launch
+libtool --mode=execute gdb /path/to/gst-launch
</programlisting>.
If this does not work, you're probably using a broken version of libtool.
</para>
<answer>
<para>
Our main arena for coordination and discussion is IRC, not email.
-Join us in #gstreamer on irc.freenode.net
+Join us in <ulink url="irc://irc.freenode.net/#gstreamer">#gstreamer on irc.freenode.net</ulink>
For larger picture questions or getting more input from more persons,
a mail to gstreamer-devel is never a bad idea.
However, we do archive our IRC discussions, which you may find in the
</abstract>
<revhistory>
+ <revision>
+ <revnumber>0.2.0</revnumber>
+ <date>2006-03-16</date>
+ <revremark>Review and update whole document.</revremark>
+ </revision>
+
<revision>
<revnumber>0.1.1</revnumber>
<date>2003-04-24</date>
<sect1 id="chapter-general">
<title id="title-general">General</title>
- <qandaset>
+ <qandaset defaultlabel="qanda">
<qandaentry>
<question id="general-media-player">
</question>
<answer>
<para>
-GStreamer is still very early in its development, but already we see some
-really nice applications being developed in parallel with GStreamer.
-Both gst-player and gst-editor are very closely linked to GStreamer itself
-for obvious reasons.
-<!-- For a list of some of the more advanced projects, look at the list
-in our <ulink url="http://gstreamer.net/status/">Status table</ulink>. -->
+Many media player applications have chosen GStreamer for their backend.
+Also a couple of media format conversion tools have been written using the powers of GStreamer.
+With the advent of GStreamer-0.10 several media editing applications have been started.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+For a list of projects, look at the
+<ulink url="http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/apps/">application list</ulink>
+on the GStreamer project website.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
-Depends. Our main target is the Unix platform. That said, interest has been
-expressed in porting GStreamer to other platforms and the GStreamer core
+Depends. Our main target is the Unix platform. It also works on Win32 and Mac OS X,
+but it may still be a bit challenging to get everything up and running.
+That said, interest has been expressed in porting GStreamer to other platforms and the GStreamer core
team will gladly accept patches to accomplish this.
<!-- Please refer to the
<ulink url="http://gstreamer.net/status/?category=7">
<para>
While GStreamer is operated as an independent project, we do have a close
relationship with the GNOME community. Many of our hackers consider
-themselves also to be members of the GNOME community. There are plans to
-make (some part of) GStreamer an official part of the development framework
-of GNOME. This does not exclude use of GStreamer by other communities at
-all, of course.
+themselves also to be members of the GNOME community.
+GStreamer is officialy bundled with the GNOME desktop, as lots of packages
+(like gnome-media, totem and rhythmbox) are using it.
+This does not exclude use of GStreamer by other communities at all, of course.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<para>
The GStreamer community wants to have as good a relationship as possible
with KDE, and we hope that someday KDE decides to adopt GStreamer as their
-multimedia API, just like the GNOME community plans on doing.
+multimedia API (planned for KDE 4).
There have been contacts from time to time between the GStreamer community
and KDE and we do already have support for the aRTSd sound server used by KDE.
-Also, some of the KDE hackers have created Qt bindings of GStreamer
-and made a simple video player.
+Also, some of the KDE hackers have created Qt bindings of GStreamer,
+made a simple video player and using it in some audio players (JuK and AmaroK).
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
<sect1 id="chapter-getting">
<title id="title-getting">Getting GStreamer</title>
- <qandaset>
+ <qandaset defaultlabel="qanda">
<qandaentry>
<question id="getting-gstreamer">
by the FSF lawyer team and verified by FSF lawyer and law professor Eben Moglen.
</para>
- <qandaset>
+ <qandaset defaultlabel="qanda">
<qandaentry>
<question id="legal-distribute-three">
<sect1 id="chapter-troubleshooting">
<title id="title-troubleshooting">Troubleshooting GStreamer</title>
- <qandaset>
+ <qandaset defaultlabel="qanda">
<qandaentry>
<question id="troubleshooting-undefined-behaviour">
- <para>
+ <label>
My GStreamer-based application crashes on startup with errors about unfound
-schedulers on the command-line. I get undefined behaviour as soon as any
-GStreamer element is being initialized.
+schedulers on the command-line.
+ </label>
+ <para>
+I get undefined behaviour as soon as anyGStreamer element is being initialized.
</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>
-Your registry is probably missing, or it is outdated (i.e. not updated after
+If the application is using GStreamer-0.8 it might be that your registry is missing, or is outdated (i.e. not updated after
a recent upgrade). Fix this by running gst-register yourself:
<programlisting>
gst-register
</answer>
</qandaentry>
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="troubleshooting-gst-register">
+ <para>
+On my system there is no gst-register command.
+ </para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <para>
+GStreamer version 0.9 and higher does not need this anymore. The registry will
+be rebuild automatically. If you suspect the registry is broken, just delete the
+<filename>registry.*.xml</filename> files under <filename>$HOME/.gstreamer-0.X/</filename>
+and run
+<programlisting>
+ gst-inspect
+</programlisting>
+to rebuild the registry. You might need to do this as root again for the system-wide registry.
+ </para>
+ </answer>
+ </qandaentry>
+
</qandaset>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="chapter-using">
<title id="title-using">Using GStreamer</title>
- <qandaset>
+ <qandaset defaultlabel="qanda">
<qandaentry>
<question id="using-getting-started">
projects / platform / upstream / gstreamer.git / commitdiff