JMF Installation Mini-HOWTO (2004-10-30)

This little HOWTO describes how to install the Java Media Framework

Please also see the setup instructions on java.sun.com: http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jmf/2.1.1/setup-linux.html
  1. Download the JMF Linux Performance Pack from here: http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jmf/2.1.1/download.html

  2. Place the downloaded file jmf-2_1_1e-linux-i586.bin in the directory where you want to install JMF, for example /usr/lib

  3. Make sure that the java executable is in your PATH. Just try the command java -version to verify that.

  4. Start the installation with sh ./jmf-2_1_1e-linux-i586.bin. You will be asked if you want to permit recording from an applet, it is quite safe to say "yes" here, but you probably won't need it. Then you will be asked if you want to allow writing local files from an applet, here it is recommended to say "no". As JTVD is not an applet, it doesn't require any of these two permissions.

  5. After these questions have been answered, the installer creates a directory called JMF-2.1.1e, extracts the files from the archive and starts querying the video and audio devices it has found in order to create the JMF registry. This may take a moment. Errors like "java.lang.Error: Can't open video card 1" usually don't mean that there is anything wrong.
    If you see the error "JMF-2.1.1e/bin/jmfinit: line 88: exec: java: not found", you just have to make sure that the java executable is in your PATH and then run JMF-2.1.1e/bin/jmfinit manually in order to build the registry. Without the registry, applications like JTVD will not be able to find any video or audio devices.

  6. To complete the installation, you should set the environment variables JMFHOME, CLASSPATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH according to the JMF installation path you have chosen. If you for example have installed JMF to /usr/lib/JMF-2.1.1e, then you could add the following lines to your .profile:

    export JMFHOME=/usr/lib/JMF-2.1.1e
    export CLASSPATH=.:$CLASSPATH:$JMFHOME/lib/jmf.jar
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$JMFHOME/lib
    Please note, that JTVD does not require this, as you can set JMFHOME in the startup script jtvd, the script then takes care of the rest.