Headunit (Linux/Windows CarPC frontend) + initial screenshots - Page 21

SoulCoughy · 08-24-2006, 01:48 PM

I want in on this. Been on Linux for a few years, but I have a very rudimentary understanding of C++/QT. This would be my first project of consequence, but I'll help out any way I can. What direction are you guys thinking of taking the project in? Studio4Master, you mentioned wanting XML skins. Let me be blunt about what I'd like to see from a frontend:

RoadRunner is, in my opinion, the most advanced and featureful Open Source frontend for windows. It also has quite a skinning community behind it. What about making RR skins compatible (minus the flash stuff of course)? I think that adopting an already established skin format would ease a lot of pain in creating skins. As a Linux dude, I value functionality, but, let's face it, aesthetics are important in a car. I was actually poking around in the HeadUnit code trying to do this myself a little while ago, and the way it is coded makes using anything but the default mediacar skin very difficult. (The program expects to see one of each button)

Just my 2 cents.

stevelaz · 08-24-2006, 02:30 PM

SoulCoughy,
I totally agree, I'd like to see headunit supporting skins from other players... that way we save on implementing all that.
RoadRunner is open source, so we can port it's skin code to our player...
We'd have to check the licensing..... looks like it's gpl'd.. atleast the sdk for java plugins is.
Either way, they've written it in VB(yuck) so we'll just ahve to port it to c/c++ for linux.

Wow, i'm glad to hear that more that a couple of people are interested in getting involved with this project.

I'll try and come up with a list of todo's tonight and post to the list.
feedback or suggestions wanted!

stevelaz · 08-24-2006, 11:41 PM

Guys,
I've contacted NoPCListen about taking over the project.
I'm waiting on a reply from him with more information.

In the meantime, I got both the latest tarball and the CVS tree, and both of them crash

FYI, I'm running FC5

I'm debugging it and I'll let you all know what I come up with.

As far as features to add, I need to play around with it (without crashing) before I can come up with a list... but by looking at the previous posts... I think we can gather a good amount of tasks to keep us busy for a while

Steve

NoPistonPC · 08-25-2006, 01:56 AM

Hi guys, I'm glad to see interest from developers to continue this project. Qt is not that difficult to learn. Trolltech (www.trolltech.com, the creators of Qt) have a lot of documentation and tutorials available. My time is extremely limited right now as I am in grad school and trying to finish, but if anyone is willing to take over the project, I will try my best to help out as best I can.

studio4master · 08-25-2006, 05:17 PM

In my first posting, I wrote about continue Headunit on a new project called studio4car.
This project has been created and I've started with experiment, change some parts of the original source code and implement of new things.
But all this static stuff it does not makes me really happy. All functions and buttons and others are implemented static in the program. For each extension you have to compile and build new.
So I've decided not to continue on this way and started to develop a new program that is applicable universally. Based on a system known from the industry, called visualisation, hmi or scada.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCADA
Example:
With a such system you can create a lot of screens with lots of objects like buttons, labels, sliders and other special objects(e.g. browser, file editor), stored on a configuration file. Each button can send an event to a function or some other objects.
A label can display static text or a text stored in a variable. The data system provides variables and functions. The variables can communicate with objects and other devices trought communication drivers (e.g. RS232).
Normally a hmi provides two modes: a edit mode to modify the configuration in a graphical object editor, and a runtime mode.

So, now, my plans and ideas in clear words as roadmap:

Project name: studio4visual

1. base hmi system in runtime mode
- collection of screen objects (e.g. button, number, text, datetime, branch, window,...)
- data system with a function editor, variables and a collection of variable data types (e.g. number, event, text, ...)
- configuration as xml and/or on a database
- plugin interface for screen objects
- plugin interface for system functions (e.g. master volume, disk eject, ...)

2. screen object plugins
- a mediaplayer plugin
- a navigation plugin (as far as possible)
- some communication plugins (phone, internet,...)
- some service plugins (settings, OBD, ...)

3. hmi edit mode
- graphical object editor

4. communication driver plugins
- plugin interface for communication drivers
- communication drivers (e.g. RS232, database, ...)

Develop environment:
- C++, QT3, QT4 (as far as possible)
- KDevelop, Eclipse
- config file as XML file and/or on a SQL database (MySql)
- project on sourceforge.net (soon...)

Of course, this work is not done in two weeks ;-)

About help:
It's great to see, others are interessed in help with develop.
But first, let me create the base system (most important parts) and some specification papers (e.g. plugins api).
Then, everybody, who likes, can help on this project.
I hope, I can publish the first developer release soon...

stevelaz · 08-25-2006, 07:29 PM

studio4master,
that sounds really cool. I might want to work on that when it gets released.

But in the meantime, I'm still attempting to enhance headunit as it requires a lot less work, plus that means I get my carpc to a working state faster

stevelaz · 08-25-2006, 07:34 PM

Guys,
Here's a rough list:

------------------------------
1. Port to QT4. (i'm working on that now)
2. IPOD library support.(we should be able use the code from gtkpod or amarok)
3. Import/rip CDs to mp3 database
4. Support different skins.
5. GPS plugin support.

If anyone picks any one of these tasks up, please post to the list so that we won't be duplicating the workload.

Thanks,
Steve

stevelaz · 08-27-2006, 12:34 PM

Guys,
After realizing the amount of changes needed in order to port to QT4. I'm delaying that task.
I want to get things working first and then we can port to QT4.
Plus if any of you were to start to work on any of the other features, by the time the QT4 port was done, we'd have to port your new code to QT4 also.

Anyway, from what I can tell so far, there's not a huge benefit by porting to QT4. We can do it at some point in the future.

So here's the status as of now.
------------------------------
1. Port to QT4. (postponed for now)
2. IPOD library support. (stevelaz working on this)
3. Import/rip CDs to mp3 database
4. Support different skins.
5. GPS plugin support.
6. Create a homepage for the project.

Quote: Originally Posted by stevelaz

Guys,
Here's a rough list:

------------------------------
1. Port to QT4. (i'm working on that now)
2. IPOD library support.(we should be able use the code from gtkpod or amarok)
3. Import/rip CDs to mp3 database
4. Support different skins.
5. GPS plugin support.

If anyone picks any one of these tasks up, please post to the list so that we won't be duplicating the workload.

Thanks,
Steve

jack1226 · 10-03-2006, 12:51 PM

i have error:

QSqlDatabase: QSQLITE driver not loaded
QSqlDatabase: available drivers:
QSqlDatabase: QSQLITE driver not loaded
QSqlDatabase: available drivers:

stevelaz · 10-03-2006, 01:10 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by jack1226

i have error:

QSqlDatabase: QSQLITE driver not loaded
QSqlDatabase: available drivers:
QSqlDatabase: QSQLITE driver not loaded
QSqlDatabase: available drivers:

Jack1226,
You need to build QT3.3 from scratch. The version of QT that you have doesn't some with the SQLite driver. Atleast that's what it looks like.
The Readme or Install file explains howto build/install QT.

jack1226 · 10-09-2006, 02:04 PM

install QT but.......

[root@localhost qt-x11-free-3.3.2]# ./configure -sm -thread -stl -system-libjpeg -verbose -largefile \
>
bin/ examples/ LICENSE.GPL pics/ README-QT.TXT
changes-3.3.2 extensions/ LICENSE.QPL PLATFORMS src/
config.status FAQ Makefile plugins/ templates/
config.tests/ include/ MANIFEST qmake/ tools/
configure INSTALL mkspecs/ .qmake.cache translations/
doc/ lib/ phrasebooks/ README tutorial/
> -qt-imgfmt-{jpeg,mng,png} -tablet -system-libmng \
>
bin/ examples/ LICENSE.GPL pics/ README-QT.TXT
changes-3.3.2 extensions/ LICENSE.QPL PLATFORMS src/
config.status FAQ Makefile plugins/ templates/
config.tests/ include/ MANIFEST qmake/ tools/
configure INSTALL mkspecs/ .qmake.cache translations/
doc/ lib/ phrasebooks/ README tutorial/
> -system-libpng -lpthread -xft -xrender \
>
bin/ examples/ LICENSE.GPL pics/ README-QT.TXT
changes-3.3.2 extensions/ LICENSE.QPL PLATFORMS src/
config.status FAQ Makefile plugins/ templates/
config.tests/ include/ MANIFEST qmake/ tools/
configure INSTALL mkspecs/ .qmake.cache translations/
doc/ lib/ phrasebooks/ README tutorial/
> -fast -plugin-sql-sqlite
IBASE auto-detection...
Could not find libgds.* anywhere in /lib /usr/lib
IBASE disabled.
MySQL auto-detection...
Could not find libmysqlclient.* anywhere in /lib /usr/lib
MySQL disabled.
ODBC auto-detection...
Found libodbc.* in /usr/lib
Could not find sqlext.h anywhere in /usr/include
ODBC disabled.
PostgreSQL auto-detection...

NoPistonPC · 10-10-2006, 04:31 AM

Make sure you installed sqlite properly:

1. download sqlite: http://sqlite.org/sqlite-3.3.8.tar.gz
2. tar zxvf sqlite-3.3.8.tar.gz
3. cd sqlite-3.3.8
4. ./configure
5. make && make install

Then cd to your qt source directory and run the following command (all in one line):

./configure -sm -thread -stl -system-libjpeg -verbose -largefile -qt-imgfmt-{jpeg,mng,png} -tablet -system-libmng -system-libpng -lpthread -xft -xrender -fast -plugin-sql-sqlite

NOTE: the headunit INSTALL.unix file is a bit outdated. If the newer version of qt3 doesn't work, try downloading the older version: 3.3.2 and re-compile.

novorado · 10-11-2006, 01:06 PM

Hello everyone,

Biggest advantage of Headunit is that it employs Qt, as a powerfull highq-quality cross-platform GUI technology. It makes development cost-effective.

Notes on app (I've looked into Headunit 0.3 Windows install)

1. First of all, it seems to be compiled in console mode (so command window pops up). That is easily fixable.
2. There is no main window! It just sticks in 0,0. What if I use 15" with my CarPC, howd that go? I am doing development on Linux/Windows machines, and like it to be testable and work here as well.
3. Do you have list of working/tested/untested/half-implemented functionalities?
4. What is approach taken for adding skins, exactly - a simple manual whould do.
5. Is it scriptable? I suggest we add Tcl to it. I can do that quickly and professionally.
Having Tcl with it's nice module structure will allow people to make independent third-party plugins.
No need to share same project staff, just to follow module requirements.
6. How it can be integrated with other multimedia apps (primary interst is multi-platofrm ones, such as VLC) ?

I would certainly love to join the development, however some steps need to be done for it to be effective.
a. Standartize on development/build environment, and document it. It can be either home Linux box with CVS/Kdevelop/>=Qt3, or/and Windows+MS Visual Studio .NET/>=Qt3
b. What software dependenices does it need - will MySQL do? It's pretty nice db engine, easy to install/program, quite well performing.
c. We need to have unified way to build/test it. Ideally, we need to have makefile, that will work like
c.1 get source code from sourceforge cvs: "make update"
c.2 run smoke check to make sure we do not screw up something "make smoke"
c.3 put changes back to cvs: "make commit"

Having put this disciplines in place will help us to progress efficiently and quickly.

I guess there is a lot of freedom in the way extra features can be implemnted. People just need to decide what they are interested in, than put staff they develop into the sf CVS. At some point of time, we review it , make a release,
where each new piece of functionaity is working. Some release plan is needed. Who will manage access to CVS on sourceforge ? could we a agree on a prelimnary release plan ?

What do you thihk ?