Build my own Vix image

[twol]

Thank you twol,

I see 2 feed URIs in openvix.conf:

DISTRO_FEED_URI ?=
STATIC_DISTROFEED_URI ?=

So far I have been just building the image only. If the feeds will be stored locally, what is the correct syntax to use? Will I need to remove the current remote URIs before I add my local storage path?


I don't use Hbbtv or Kodi. I only have a small number of plugins installed on the receiver, from what I can see in its /etc/enigma2/settings:

"config.misc.pluginbrowser.plugin_order=Plugins/Extensions/DLNAServer,Plugins/Extensions/Bitrate,Plugins/Extensions/EPGImport,Plugins/Extensions/Filebrowser,Plugins/Extensions/IMDb,Plugins/Extensions/MediaScanner,Plugins/Extensions/OpenWebif,Plugins/Extensions/PicturePlayer,Plugins/Extensions/MediaPlayer,Plugins/Extensions/SHOUTcast,Plugins/Extens
ions/OAWeather"

I attach a list of all my user installed packages on the receiver. Can I build these plugin ipkg files only and not any others, which I don't use or need?

Looking at the 'oe-alliance-feeds.bbappend.zip' file (thank you Huevos and twol) it removes some reverse dependencies, but this is only for some packages which I don't use anyway. If there is no way to only build the plugins I want installed, how long does it take to build all these ipkg files, compared to the time taken to build the main image.

So I disable static feeds and just change this DISTRO_FEED_URI

It will build everything - Yes there are ways of reducing/removing some plugins being built, but they usually take no time at all to compile - so really not worth it.... and in general the plugins are built towards the end of the build.
Removing those HbbTv/Kpdi packages really helps e.g. nodejs/QT can take upto 2 hours even on my build PC.
Once built, providing there are no OE-A changes that force a total re build (happens) doing a build is minimal and you can (as in enigma2 readme) just compile enigma image.

 

[lincsat]

Thank you twol,

I see 2 feed URIs in openvix.conf:

DISTRO_FEED_URI ?=
STATIC_DISTROFEED_URI ?=

So far I have been just building the image only. If the feeds will be stored locally, what is the correct syntax to use? Will I need to remove the current remote URIs before I add my local storage path?


I don't use Hbbtv or Kodi. I only have a small number of plugins installed on the receiver, from what I can see in its /etc/enigma2/settings:

"config.misc.pluginbrowser.plugin_order=Plugins/Extensions/DLNAServer,Plugins/Extensions/Bitrate,Plugins/Extensions/EPGImport,Plugins/Extensions/Filebrowser,Plugins/Extensions/IMDb,Plugins/Extensions/MediaScanner,Plugins/Extensions/OpenWebif,Plugins/Extensions/PicturePlayer,Plugins/Extensions/MediaPlayer,Plugins/Extensions/SHOUTcast,Plugins/Extens
ions/OAWeather"

I attach a list of all my user installed packages on the receiver. Can I build these plugin ipkg files only and not any others, which I don't use or need?

Looking at the 'oe-alliance-feeds.bbappend.zip' file (thank you Huevos and twol) it removes some reverse dependencies, but this is only for some packages which I don't use anyway. If there is no way to only build the plugins I want installed, how long does it take to build all these ipkg files, compared to the time taken to build the main image.

If I understand your question about the local feeds then the syntax in the site.ini

DISTRO_FEED_URI = "http://feeds location/${MACHINE}"

I symlink the ipk feeds to my /var/www/html folder

 

[twol]

If I understand your question about the local feeds then the syntax in the site.ini

DISTRO_FEED_URI = "http://feeds location/${MACHINE}"

I symlink the ipk feeds to my /var/www/html folder

thanks - knew there was a simpler way!

 

[birdman]

If there is no way to only build the plugins I want installed, how long does it take to build all these ipkg files, compared to the time taken to build the main image.

In my experience it flies through building extensions.
There will be many things built that you don't use (gcc - which I often find being the last thing built, so clearly not used).
But you won't build them all that often (many won't change).

 

[Huevos]

If there is no way to only build the plugins I want installed, how long does it take to build all these ipkg files, compared to the time taken to build the main image.

How long is a piece of string? On our build server the complete build of each machine including feeds takes around 2 hours. On other build server hardware it might take a lot longer especially if using a VM. On a rebuild it takes less than 10 minutes.

Anyway, just be patient and let everything build. You have already taken a lot of time off if you are using those bbappends.

 

[Mickkie]

I've built the image only. This is what I see in builds/openvix/release/hd51/tmp/deploy:

~/openvix/build-enviroment$ ls -l builds/openvix/release/hd51/tmp/deploy/ipk/
total 676
drwxr-xr-x 2 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder  20480 Nov 19 11:08 all
drwxr-xr-x 2 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder 532480 Nov 19 11:09 cortexa15hf-neon-vfpv4
drwxr-xr-x 2 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder 106496 Nov 19 11:08 hd51
drwxr-xr-x 2 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder  20480 Nov 19 11:08 mutant51
-rw-r--r-- 1 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder      0 Nov 19 10:18 Packages

~/openvix/build-enviroment$ ls -l builds/openvix/release/hd51/tmp/deploy/images/hd51/
total 1024716
-rw-r--r-- 1 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder      1349 Nov 19 11:04 enigma-mutant51.txt
-rw-r--r-- 2 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder  25842563 Nov 19 10:14 modules--4.10.12-r4-hd51-20251119090426.tgz
lrwxrwxrwx 2 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder        43 Nov 19 10:14 modules-hd51.tgz -> modules--4.10.12-r4-hd51-20251119090426.tgz
-rw-r--r-- 1 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder 603979776 Nov 19 11:09 openvix-6.8.001.release-mutant51.ext4
-rw-r--r-- 1 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder     35407 Nov 19 11:08 openvix-6.8.001.release-mutant51.manifest
-rw-r--r-- 1 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder 122961580 Nov 19 11:10 openvix-6.8.001.release-mutant51_multi.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder 137185021 Nov 19 11:10 openvix-6.8.001.release-mutant51_recovery_emmc.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder 353310720 Nov 19 11:09 openvix-6.8.001.release-mutant51.tar
-rw-r--r-- 1 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder    860754 Nov 19 11:08 openvix-6.8.001.release-mutant51.testdata.json
lrwxrwxrwx 2 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder        42 Nov 19 10:14 zImage -> zImage--4.10.12-r4-hd51-20251119090426.bin
-rw-r--r-- 2 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder   4891016 Nov 19 10:14 zImage--4.10.12-r4-hd51-20251119090426.bin
lrwxrwxrwx 2 openvixbuilder openvixbuilder        42 Nov 19 10:14 zImage-hd51.bin -> zImage--4.10.12-r4-hd51-20251119090426.bin

I'm now running make feeds. I'm not sure if I am doing this right. From the ~4.5k tasks it took to build the image, it now shows "Setscene tasks 7557". On this old laptop things progress at a glacial pace.

 

[lincsat]

Looking good. Remember if you didn't set the DISTRO_FEED_URI in site.conf that the image will look at the Openvix server for the feeds and won't install any plugins if you do a flash and restore. You can install the image and change the feed locations in /etc/opkg/ to point to your build box and then install any plugins

 

[Mickkie]

Looking good. Remember if you didn't set the DISTRO_FEED_URI in site.conf that the image will look at the Openvix server for the feeds and won't install any plugins if you do a flash and restore. You can install the image and change the feed locations in /etc/opkg/ to point to your build box and then install any plugins

Thank you lincsat, I have set the DISTRO_FEED_URI as you suggested. Hopefully I'll be able to upgrade the box later today and surprise myself if it runs as it ought to!

 

[Huevos]

Looking good. Remember if you didn't set the DISTRO_FEED_URI in site.conf that the image will look at the Openvix server for the feeds and won't install any plugins if you do a flash and restore. You can install the image and change the feed locations in /etc/opkg/ to point to your build box and then install any plugins

Except it won't find any because there are no official feeds for that machine.

 

[Mickkie]

Am I supposed to change the URI in each of the files in /etc/opkg on the receiver manually?

~# ls -l /etc/opkg/
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            79 Nov 19 08:21 all-feed.conf
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           292 Nov 19 08:21 arch.conf
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           117 Nov 19 08:21 cortexa15hf-neon-vfpv4-feed.conf
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           106 Nov 19 08:21 enigma2-settings-feed.conf
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            81 Nov 19 08:21 hd51-feed.conf
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            89 Nov 19 08:21 mutant51-feed.conf
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           102 Nov 19 08:21 oe-alliance-3rdparty-feed.conf
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            63 Nov 19 08:21 openvix-picon-feed.conf
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           925 Nov 19 08:21 opkg.conf
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            87 Nov 19 08:21 static-all-feed.conf
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root           125 Nov 19 08:21 static-cortexa15hf-neon-vfpv4-feed.conf
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root            89 Nov 19 08:21 static-hd51-feed.conf

 

[Huevos]

Ok. Remove the ones that start with "static".

Don't touch third party or picon.

Edit mutant51, hd51, cotexa and all.

 

[Mickkie]

I flashed the new image, it rebooted and when the startup wizard came up, I edited the mutant51, hd51, cortexa and all files, in /etc/opkg and removed the static-* before I continued with the wizard. I accepted to restore settings from a backup and then accepted to restore plugins. It complained:
"Sorry the feeds are down for maintenance please try again later."
I tried after it rebooted, with the same result.
Then I tried to install the network utility NFS. It appeared to install it, asked me to reboot, I clicked yes, but nothing happened until I exited the menu, at that stage it rebooted. Despite all that, the NFS service is not installed.
Other than the NFS which is a show stopper for my usecase, other plugins appear to install and run.
Any ideas how I could troubleshoot the NFS service?

 

[Huevos]

Yes, the problem is you haven't set any feeds up. Where are your feeds? How is the box going to access them? Can you access them directly using a web browser.

You can check. Go to the command line. Enter "opkg update" and check the output.

 

[Mickkie]

Ha! I had made a typo. All seems to be working now. I'll reboot when the box is free to confirm NFS is up & running.
Thank you all very much for your help.
How frequently is it recommended to be updating the image and feeds?

 

[Mickkie]

Ha! I had made a typo. All seems to be working now. I'll reboot when the box is free to confirm NFS is up & running.
Thank you all very much for your help.
How frequently is it recommended to be updating the image and feeds?

I did some testing and so far all is working as expected! Please let me know if anyone would like to test/use my image/feeds on their Mut@nt 51 receiver.
Meanwhile, so that I can streamline my update/upgrade process, I I'd like to understand what is the purpose of the DISTRO_FEED_URI entry in site.conf for. I thought it would be used at build time to hardcode in the finished image the build server's http address, so the receiver can fetch feeds for modules and plugins the user may wish to install at runtime. If this assumption is correct, then why do I need to manually modify paths on the receiver in /etc/opkg/?

 

[twol]

I did some testing and so far all is working as expected! Please let me know if anyone would like to test/use my image/feeds on their Mut@nt 51 receiver.
Meanwhile, so that I can streamline my update/upgrade process, I I'd like to understand what is the purpose of the DISTRO_FEED_URI entry in site.conf for. I thought it would be used at build time to hardcode in the finished image the build server's http address, so the receiver can fetch feeds for modules and plugins the user may wish to install at runtime. If this assumption is correct, then why do I need to manually modify paths on the receiver in /etc/opkg/?

Providing you have added correctly, then it should override whats in openvix.conf and change the files in /etc/opkg.
If it is not then re post here.
Becuase I change much of whats in openvix.conf for my personal builds, I don,t use the above method, but. it should work.

 

[lincsat]

I did some testing and so far all is working as expected! Please let me know if anyone would like to test/use my image/feeds on their Mut@nt 51 receiver.
Meanwhile, so that I can streamline my update/upgrade process, I I'd like to understand what is the purpose of the DISTRO_FEED_URI entry in site.conf for. I thought it would be used at build time to hardcode in the finished image the build server's http address, so the receiver can fetch feeds for modules and plugins the user may wish to install at runtime. If this assumption is correct, then why do I need to manually modify paths on the receiver in /etc/opkg/?

I set the feed location in the DISTRO_FEED_URI entry in site.conf so I don't have to modify the the files in /etc/opkg, they are built with the correct location. You do need to set the DISTRO_FEED_URI entry before the build starts, I'm guessing that for your 1st build, you started before you set the location

 

[Huevos]

How frequently is it recommended to be updating the image and feeds?

Did you build a developer or release image? Typically the release image gets updated once a month. And not much point you doing it more often because the enigma2 release branch is only updated just before the official rebuilds.

 

[Mickkie]

I set the feed location in the DISTRO_FEED_URI entry in site.conf so I don't have to modify the the files in /etc/opkg, they are built with the correct location. You do need to set the DISTRO_FEED_URI entry before the build starts, I'm guessing that for your 1st build, you started before you set the location

Yes, exactly that, thank you. First I built the image, then when it finished I added DISTRO_FEED_URI and finally I built the feeds. Next time I'll run 'make image' so it builds image and feeds in one go.

 

[Mickkie]

Did you build a developer or release image? Typically the release image gets updated once a month. And not much point you doing it more often because the enigma2 release branch is only updated just before the official rebuilds.

I used DISTRO_TYPE=release. OK, I'll keep an eye out and rinse and repeat once a month.
If there's a way to share my work for others who may benefit from it, please let me know.