Open source software for series A7/8/9 SH4

Increasing discontent with Samsung software resulted in looking for better alternative. And open source community offers one. Belive or not, Samsung TV can run without Samsung's software!

Disclaimer

System is very experimental and many components are work in progress. It is not yet suitable for general public. If you are not experienced in linux, please do not use it. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY

Components

System is based on Linux, modified STLinux from ST Microelectronics and DuckBox - collection of open software for satellite box. TDT used in following text is acronym for Team Duck Box.

Build toolchain

Used TDT build system with patches for SAMTV

Linux kernel

linux kernel version 2.6.32.59 stm24-211 with TDT patches and SAMTV board setup. Kernel is configured for nfs boot and root. To speed up boot time, usb disk and flash drivers are NOT compiled in, so this kernel will NOT work with usb root.

Havana player2

Open source multimedia player framework from ST Microelectronics. In original Samsung software is used player version 1 with STAPI. Player 2 has linux native DVB API. Used TDT patched version 2-191 with aditional patches for SAMTV.

Native linux DVB-T driver

Driver for DVB-T frontend S5H1432 was backported from linux 3.6 and substantially reworked.

Showtime media center

Nice media center software now being ported to sh4 / Havana player2. See http://www.lonelycoder.com/showtime/

Other software

DuckBox project includes following user software

• Enigma 2: Satellite receiver user software. Works and supports DVB-T. Media player does not decode all formats supported by Havana player2.
• Neutrino HD: Satellite receiver user software. Works but does not support DVB-T. Fast start-up and operation. Good and simple media player.
• XBMC: Media center works but is very very slow and hardly fits into memory. Not for real use.

Instalation

To be described

Also see discussion