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[Qtopia Core]

Installing Qtopia Core

Note that the installation procedure is written for Linux, and may need to be modified for other platforms.

Step 1: Installing the License File (commercial editions only)

If you have the commercial edition of Qtopia Core, the first step is to install your license file as $HOME/.qt-license.

For the open source version you do not need a license file.

Step 2: Unpacking the Archive

First uncompress the archive in the preferred location, then unpack it:

    cd <anywhere>
    gunzip qtopia-core-commercial-src-4.1.3.tar.gz
    tar xf qtopia-core-commercial-src-4.1.3.tar

This document assumes that the archive is unpacked in the following directory:

    ~/qtopia-core-commercial-src-4.1.3

Step 3: Building the Library

Before building the Qtopia Core library, run the ./configure script to configure the library for your deployment architecture:

    cd  ~/qtopia-core-commercial-src-4.1.3
    ./configure -embedded [architecture]

The configuration system is designed to allow platform-specific options to be added, typical architectures are x86 and arm. To get a list of all available options, type ./configure -help. In general, all Linux systems which have framebuffer support can use the "linux-generic-g++" platform. The configuration system also supports cross-compilers. For example, to build on Linux/x86 for the Linux/MIPSEL target, pass mips as parameter to the configure script's -embedded option.

To create the library and compile all the demos, examples, tools, and tutorials, type:

    make

On some systems the make utility is called differently, e.g. gmake. The configure script tells you which make utility to use. To install the library, demos, examples, tools, and tutorials, type:

    su -c "make install"

and enter the root password. Qtopia Core is by default installed into the /usr/local/Trolltech/QtopiaCore-4.1.3 directory but this can be changed by using the configure script's -prefix parameter.

Only a small number of configurations are predefined. You can create your own custom configuration by adding new files to the mkspecs/qws/ directory, using existing similar configurations as a starting point.

Step 4: Adjusting the Environment Variables

In order to use Qtopia Core, the PATH variable must be extended to locate qmake, moc and other Qtopia Core tools, and the LD_LIBRARY_PATH must be extended for compilers that do not support rpath.

To set the PATH variable, add the following lines to your .profile file if your shell is bash, ksh, zsh or sh:

     PATH=/usr/local/Trolltech/QtopiaCore-4.1.3/bin:$PATH
     export PATH

In case your shell is csh or tcsh, add the following line to the .login file instead:

     setenv PATH /usr/local/Trolltech/QtopiaCore-4.1.3/bin:$PATH

If you use a different shell, please modify your environment variables accordingly.

For compilers that do not support rpath you must also extended the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable to include /usr/local/Trolltech/QtopiaCore-4.1.3/lib. Note that on Linux with GCC, this step is not needed.

Step 5: Enabling Framebuffer Support

Qtopia Core applications write directly to the framebuffer, eliminating the need for the X Window System and saving memory. The final step in the installation procedure is to enable the framebuffer support.

For development and debugging, the Qtopia Core platform provides a virtual framebuffer as well as the option of running Qtopia Core as a VNC server. For a description of how to install the virtual framebuffer and how to use the VNC protocol, please consult the documentation at:

Note that the virtual framebuffer requires a Qt/X11 installation. See Installing Qt/X11 for details.

No particular actions are required to enable the framebuffer on target devices: The Linux framebuffer is enabled by default on all modern Linux distributions. For information on older versions, see http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/Framebuffer-HOWTO.html.

To test that the Linux framebuffer is set up correctly, and that the device permissions are correct, use the program provided by the Testing the Linux Framebuffer document.

That's all. Qtopia Core is now installed.

Customizing the Qtopia Core Library

When building embedded applications on low-powered devices, reducing the memory and CPU requirements is important.

A number of options tuning the library's performance are available. But the most direct way of saving resources is to fine-tune the set of Qt features that is compiled. It is also possible to make use of accelerated graphics hardware.

In addition, it is possible to specify the pointer handling as well as the character input and font formats.

[Qtopia Core]


Copyright © 2006 Trolltech Trademarks
Qt 4.1.3