I would like to have a go at compiling from source but don't know where to start

[Juanito]

Also, what does the 'strip' stuff do? (I don't have a background in development, in fact, I'm a chartered accountant).

When a lot (all?) of applications are compiled, debugging symbols are included to help developers find problems - the strip command removes these debugging symbols to make the compiled files smaller.

[robc]

What do I do now?

You can submit it to tcesubmit to be put in the TC repository 

create info, md5sum, and dep files as required
put the extensions, infos, deps, md5sums and source in a directory (ie ~/zile/) and bcrypt it. use commands like these

Code: [Select]

tc@box:~$ tar czvf zile.tar.gz zile
tc@box:~$ bcrypt zile.tar.gzuse "tinycore" as the password and send it into tcesubmit

[PingPing]

How do I find out its deps?

[robc]

some applications tell you what they depend on in their website or in the README or INSTALL files found in the source. you can also look up the package in debian and see what they have listed as dependencies to start.
once you have a list to start from, reboot TC with the base norestore boot options and load the list of dependencies that you have gathered so far. start the application from the aterm window...there may be errors but usually the error will tell you what is missing then load the extensions that are required and test again.
Once you get the application to start you can test some of the functionality. if there is still a problem with a missing dependency then it should show in the aterm window.

[Juanito]

If you get stuck with a dependency - i.e. ./configure or make throws out an error about not being able to find xxx, I've found the debian packages site is very useful for finding which application xxx belongs to:

http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages#search_contents

As an example, ./configure says it cannot find "aplay"

1. Go to "Search the contents of packages"
2. Click "packages that contain files named like this"
3. Architecture: "Intel x86"
4. Keyword "aplay"
5. Answer "alsa-utils"

Note that I don't mean that you use the asla-utils deb package, but rather that you need to compile the alsa-utils tarball from the alsa site in order to install aplay.

[jpeters]

Nice tip ....took about 4 attempts to get a connection, though.....

[daemonjax]

I've recently found that pand isn't included in the bluez tce package, so I'm going to try and compile it myself.  Wish me luck.

If successful (or not) I'm sure you'll hear about it

UPDATE 1: I can get it to compile... but it skips some folders... in particular the compat folder (the only one I care about), so pand isn't compiled. I get something to the effect: make: nothing to do for 'all'.

UPDATE 2: I give up.  I can't figure out how to compile pand, and I can't figure out how to connect to a PAN without it. 

[Juanito]

Were you trying to compile bluez-4.41?

[daemonjax]

Yeah... I got it to compile, kinda... it skipped some folders, including the compat folder which contained the source for pand... bummer.

This is the usual problem for me when trying to compile programs for linux... spend two days with nothing to show for it... which is why I gave up on LFS years ago