I looked all over the FAQ, and I don't understand how to install some of the new games, emptris and other programs that would bind with hijack. Is it done with hyperterminal? I don't understand, what needs to be entered,
typed or what not, and I can't seem to find any info.
Could some one help me, or give instructions on how to install for ex: emptris on empeg?
Thank you!!! This place it great! I can be here all day, I must watch myself!

There is currently no definitive guide to installing third-party software on the player, as there is no single unified method with which to do this yet. That's something that needs to be done. I'm still waiting for someone to come up with this. (Hint: userland app launching from Hijack via config.ini options is really needed, someone please implement this soon.)

Each of the third-party programs works slightly differently and has to be handled a little differently.

There are some threads on this BBS relating to a piece of software called "preinit" which will help you figure it out. But a little bit of Linux knowledge is required to make it work.

Hint: userland app launching from Hijack via config.ini options is really needed, someone please implement this soon.)

Not sure if you missed it while you were gone, but the "launcher" utility seems to do exactly that... It wasn't announced with a lot of fanfare, but it's there, and seems to work. The user apps seem to need some tweaking to work with it though, and I'm looking into that.

The real next step is an "install shield" for the empeg. Everything else seems to be in place...

Not sure if you missed it while you were gone, but the "launcher" utility seems to do exactly that...

And if I'm not mistaken, this Launcher requires a custom init?

I'm talking about something much simpler than that. I want to be able to instruct people in the FAQ to do very simple steps that don't involve changing inits or anything. For instance, if someone wants to run Empacman, I want to be able to tell them:

- Install Hijack.

- FTP the file "empacman" to /drive0/var/

- Tag the "empacman" file with the Read and Execute flags.

- Edit config.ini and add [Userland] Empacman=/drive0/var/empacman

- Reboot the player. Empacman will now appear as an option in the Hijack menu.


Making a non-linux person edit their init is far more trouble than it should be. And then, all their hard work is erased as soon as they upgrade to the latest player software. Having this all done natively from within Hijack would work so much better because none of that stuff would get lost during an upgrade (provided you install the games to the proper partition).

Custom init? Installing the launcher itself requires that it be executed on startup, which means you need to roll your own init, OR use Bitt's preinit.d and add a script for it to call launcher.

Then you just need to add lines to config.ini, and launcher (seemingly) can start and stop your apps on demand. I have only tried it out a bit, but I'm not sure what you mean by a custom init...

[launcher] wasn't announced with a lot of fanfare,

Yeah, I was hoping to get a bit of feedback on it, and get other apps to support it before I really announced it over in General, or something.

And if I'm not mistaken, this Launcher requires a custom init?

Well... yeah. I don't trust my patching skills enough to actually write it into the hijack kernal, though it doesn't look it should be that complex. Not to mention that my computer is incredibly slow, so I don't want to compile a new kernal. Not to mention not wanting to have to upload on entire kernal every time I want to test it.

I'm talking about something much simpler than that.

I've distributed the code (which gets you 95% of the way to your goal) with launcher, so feel free to take the reins instead of just begging for someone else to do it.

- FTP the file "empacman" to /drive0/var/

- Tag the "empacman" file with the Read and Execute flags.

- Edit config.ini and add [Userland] Empacman=/drive0/var/empacman

- Reboot the player. Empacman will now appear as an option in the Hijack menu.

Which is what Launcher allows. Heck, you don't even have to reboot the player. Yeah, there's still a bit of work involved, but at least it's a step in the right direction, and a pretty major one considering what you had before. You've got a great way of making me feel like my effort was worth something. Makes me wonder why I even bothered to try and contribute back to the community at all.

If it helps at all, I for one am very glad you've set the ball rolling with this one. I am fully aware my programming skills are not up to writing this sort of thing myself, although I understand the concepts, so everything you guys add to the empeg keeps me happy.

If everyone mods their code to be launcher compatible, it will make the userland dream very easy. Okay, so we still need a preinit.d, but Bitt's instructions on that are dead easy to follow.

Thanks again

Which is what Launcher allows.

Great! So someone get that puppy patched into Hijack, submit it for the main Hijack build, and then we'll have our userland apps without custom inits required.

Great! So someone get that puppy patched into Hijack, submit it for the main Hijack build, and then we'll have our userland apps without custom inits required.

Here is Mark's requirements specification for such an animal. Launcher may have 99% of the needed functionality, but it's not in "kernel-ese."

One way to get the modified init onto the player is to patch the kernel to look for something other than /bin/init to start with, and only if that fails then run the stock init. I'm no kernel hacker, but I think this could be done.

A slightly less optimal solution but stll much easier would be to combine the functionality of preinit and launcher. Then all you need to do is upload this new utility to /bin/hijack and it will be run automatically at next bootup. We would no longer need to faff about with /etc/preinit.d/ and installing several programs.

It convienently gets around the problem regarding executing user space applications from kernel space. And since you only need to upload 1 binary it should be fairly easy to make an automated install prog.

We may have to lose the ability to load programs before the music drives have been mounted however if we use config.ini as the configuration file.

- Trevor

It has already been patched to do that. It looks first for /sbin/hijack, and, failing that, runs /sbin/init (and, I guess, failing that, /sbin/sh, unless Mark's edited that out of the standard Linux kernel for some reason).

It looks first for /sbin/hijack, and, failing that, runs /sbin/init

But doesn't that require re-installing whatever's in /sbin/hijack each time you upgrade the player?

See, I'm looking for a solution that doesn't require any hassle on each re-upgrade. (At least not any hassle above and beyond putting the latest Hijack back on the player.)

Yes. I didn't mean to claim that it didn't.