Using the very latest Libraries
Using the most current libraries can be a challenge for some of the Operating System distros that use
stable compilers, assemblers, and their own libraries. Because they are stable, they frequently do
not keep up with the very latest of thirdparty libraries. Consequently, some program constructs may
not yet be implemented. CINELERRA-GG tries to maintain stability since it is better to have less features
and no crashes. The goal is to make CINELERRA-GG widely available on many platforms rather than
dependent on advanced tools that are not supported on some distros.
CINELERRA-GG attempts to upgrade to the latest releases of many thirdparty libraries about every 3-4
months. But it is often difficult to keep some of these thirdparty libraries up to date as their
developers switch from tried and true standard tools to newer, less standard tools. As a result
in order to build CINELERRA-GG on 2-3 versions of any distro rather than only the most current version,
some thirdparty libraries can not be kept up to date and may even be to the point of no further
updates. In a lot of cases, the updated releases provide little new capabilities but rather
are bug fixes that may not even be relevant to CINELERRA-GG's use.
So as a computer savvy user or a developer, if you would like to build CINELERRA-GG with the latest
thirdparty releases for some of the packages here are a few suggestions based on other
developer's feedback and experimentation.
dav1d
- Status - currently CINELERRA-GG is staying at 0.5. This is disappointing because there
may be speed gains in version 0.6 that would be beneficial. However, it is usable for decoding
whereas libaom is a lot slower. Unfortunately, it has no effective encoder.
- Problem - 0.6 dav1d requires NASM 2.14 and uses instructions like vgf2p8affineqb,
not exactly an "add" instruction. It also uses meson which is not widely available on all
distros. The only distros that are built for CINELERRA-GG that are at 2.14 are the latest version
of Arch, Debian(10), Gentoo, Tumbleweed, and Fedora(31). The rest are at 2.12 and 2.13 including
the most widely used Ubuntu. The NASM requirement apparently provides for using AVX-512
instructions (like vgf2p8affineqb, which is more like a whole routine than a simple instruction).
- Workaround already in use by CINELERRA-GG - a Makefile was generated to replace Meson usage
but has to be continuously updated for new releases. Dav1d 0.5 requires NASM 2.13 so at this level
the newer distros mostly work. The availability of meson and nasm are a significant problem on
many systems which are still in wide use.
- Your workaround - Because a request to dav1d developers to consider changes to
ensure their library is more widely usable does not appear to be in their future, since it works
for them, you can upgrade NASM to 2.14 to stay up to date. Of course, install meson also.
OpenExr
- Status - currently at latest version
- Problem - the OpenExr tarball is not a single package but is 2 packages instead
- Workaround already in use by CINELERRA-GG - reworked the packages so that it looks like
one package with 2 stubs
- Your workaround - perhaps use the same workaround
OpenCV
- Status - 2 different versions specific for O/S but none for Ubuntu 14, 32 or 64 bit
- Problem - There are really 2 problems here. The first is OpenCV is not really
"Open" in that Surf is patented/non-free and there is no actual source available for certain
capabilities. The second is that cmake 3.5.1 is required for OpenCV 4.2.
- Workaround already in use by CINELERRA-GG - using 3.4.1 for older distros and 4.2 for newer
- Your workaround - upgrade cmake to 3.5.1 for upgrade to 4.2; add non-free to the
compile; and use binaries that you do not know what they contain since no source code to compile.
Look into opencv4/opencv2/core/types.hpp:711;27
libaom
- Status - currently at version 3.0.0 for older O/S and 3.1.1 for newer O/S
- Problem - requires cmake 3.5 at 3.0.0 and 3.6 for 3.1.1
- Workaround already in use by CINELERRA-GG - leaving out of Ubuntu14, Ubuntu, Centos7
- Your workaround - upgrade on those systems to cmake 3.6
x10tv
- Status - this is the x10 TV remote control
- Problem - INPUT_PROP_POINTING_STICK not defined error on older distros
- Workaround already in use by CINELERRA-GG - leaving out of Ubuntu14, Ubuntu, Centos7
- Your workaround - look into /usr/include/linux/input-event-codes.h
libvpx
- Status - currently at version 1.8.1
- Problem - when decoding a test file, it failed to correctly load to the timeline
- Workaround already in use by CINELERRA-GG - not upgrading to 1.8.2
- Your workaround - no analysis for a solution has been performed yet
The CINELERRA-GG Community, 2021
https://www.cinelerra-gg.org
