RDK-V Emulator Users Guide

Copyright 2023 RDK Management, LLC. All rights reserved.

The contents of this document are RDK Management, LLC Proprietary and Confidential and may not be distributed or otherwise disclosed without prior written permission of RDK Management, LLC.

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This document is provided under the terms and conditions of the RDK License Agreement, License Agreement for Software Integration Kit, License Agreement for Set-top Box Software Integration Kit.

RDK Management LLC is not responsible for any liability of any nature whatsoever resulting from or arising out of any use or reliance upon this specification. This document is furnished on an "AS IS" basis, and RDK Management, LLC does not provide any representation or warranty, express or implied, regarding its accuracy, completeness, or fitness for a particular purpose."

Table of Contents

Introduction

RDK (Reference Design Kit) is an integrated set of software components, tools and documentation that help in the development of the software stack for set-top box based on the standard Linux operating system which is designed to meet the requirements of the latest generation media servers and clients.

The RDK emulator is an x86 based implementation of the RDK software stack. It is primarily targeted towards the RDK development community (integrators, component developers and application developers) that attempts to simplify the process of working with the RDK software stack without the need for a reference hardware platform.  As RDK emulator runs on desktop computers, applications can be tested and debugged before trying to deploy them to real devices.

Purpose of this Document

The purpose of this document is to enable RDK users and developers to be able to bring up the RDK stack and emulator on the PC platform. The document also includes step-by-step procedures to setup & build RDK Emulator

Audience

The intended audience includes the MSO teams, developers and external vendors responsible for the development of firmware and applications for RDK-based Set Top Boxes 

Scope

Scope of this document includes understanding RDK Emulator and  functionalities, supported build types and to run and test in Virtual Box environment.

Limitations

RDK Emulator does not support all components of RDK 4.0 stack. Currently there is no startup UI, system boots up in console mode.

Known Issues

• High bitrate streams played using aamp-cli utility freezes during playback.
• Screen goes blank after sometime 

Abbreviations and Acronyms

The following table describes the acronyms and abbreviations used in this document

Overview of RDK Emulator

• Executes on x86-based platforms including virtualization environments such as Virtual Box and QEMU.
• Multiple build types - media client
• Up to date with the RDK generic trunk and any x86-specific platform code.
• Built using Yocto and RDK build frameworks

Key Features

• ResidentApp startup UI
• Video/Audio playback using westerossink gstreamer element.
• IP video streaming playback using aamp-cli utility

Supported Build Types

Build Setup Instructions

Setting up the Host Environment

How to Build#SettinguptheHostEnvironment

Downloading Source Code & Building

RDK-V Emulator Build Guide

Bringing up the Emulator on Virtual Box

Host Requirements

Install Virtual Box and follow the following steps to bring up RDK Emulator on Virtual Box:

In the following steps, it is recommended to review the description and screenshot completely before proceeding with steps.

STEP 1: Create your new VM Instance:

• Open Virtualbox

• Select New [A popup will come up]

• Select Type as ‘Linux’

• Select Version as ‘Other Linux (32 Bit)’

• Click on “Next”

• Choose a Memory Size of at least 4GB

• Use an existing virtual hard drive file which would be your newly built image in *.vmdk format and create your VM:

STEP 2: Configure your new VM Instance:

• Click on “Settings” tab to configure your new VM instance

• Set video memory to at least 64 MB in Display tab, and don't select the 3D acceleration
• Configure your VMs network settings
• Choose “Bridged Adapter” mode as shown in the screenshot below

$ killall westeros

Comment the last line in /usr/bin/westeros-init.sh so that compositor is not started automatically on bootup
#westeros --renderer /usr/lib/libwesteros_render_gl.so.0.0.0 --display WPE

$ mkdir -p /run/user/0
$ export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/0/
$ export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libwesteros_gl.so.0.0.0
$ westeros --renderer /usr/lib/libwesteros_render_gl.so.0.0.0 --display WPE

$ westeros_test

$ gst-launch-1.0 playbin uri=file:///<video file name with full path>

$ aamp-cli <url>
e.g.
$ aamp-cli http://devimages.apple.com/iphone/samples/bipbop/bipbopall.m3u8