Advanced configuration

Configuration files and directories

Basic capabilities of Cinemix can be expande and its configuration can be recorded on a CD (or a hard drive after installation). To do this follow the instructions below.

In the root directory of the installation (on a CD or hard drive) there should be a directory CINEMIX. In this directory you can place configuration files and subdirectories:

codecs directory - here should land additional Windows DLLs with codecs. When MPlayer can't find appropriate codec it may (it is optional) use codecs contained in this directory. Win32 libraries can be found here: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs. Most popular audio/video codecs are compiled into base system and don't require additional libraries.

console directory - you can place here data.psf and data.kmap files that change console fonts and keyboard map. data.psf is a standard .psf console font file and data.kmap is a binary keyboard translation map.

font directory - you can change the default subtitle fonts by copying font files here (font.desc and files with .raw extension). You can download fonts here: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html. However for that purpose it is advised to use specially prepared font packages.

install directory - here you can place extension packages. More information below.

modules directory - here you can put additional kernel modules when basic system does not support specific hardware. More about kernel modules below.

cinemix.ini file - this file helps changing startup options. More detailed description below.

Directory tree looks as follows (mind the upper/lower case of letters):
Cinemix tree

cinemix.ini configuration file

This file is useful when you want to change default startup options during each system boot. It has to be placed in CINEMX directory on the CD (or HDD). Ths file should contain entries like OPTION=VALUE. # character at the beginning of line marks a comment - such lines are ignored. Below you will find description of available arguments. If an argument is not specified in this file it gets a default value.

Configuration file options:
CDSPEED The speed limit of CD drive during playback (values between 2 and 52 or off). E.g. CDSPEED=16 limits the speed of CD drive to 16x, CDSPEED=off disables the limit. Slowing down the CD drive is useful to lower the noise during playback (default CDSPEED=12).
EJECT EJECT=YES means that the CD should be ejected after playback. By default EJECT=NO and CD won't be ejected.
LOOP or MPLOOP Repeat the show in loop (yes or no, by default MPLOOP=no). Affects only MPlayer.
FIXEDRES Set fixed screen resolution. This resolution will be used during movie playback and picture slide show (e.g. FIXEDRES=800x600). Warning: Validity of this setting is not checked. Setting too high resolution may slow down movie playback. By default the resolution is changed on demand and depends on selected boot label.
RES or RESOLUTION Change screen resolution (640x480, 800x600 or 1024x768). Affects only FB driver, console and picture slide show. Default value depends on starting label.
DEPTH Changes display color depth (8, 16, 24 or 32 bit). Affects only FB driver, console and picture slide show. Default value depends on starting label.
MONITORASPECT Change default screen aspect ratio. This setting is useful on widescreen displays. As a parameter it takes the screen ratio (width / height) (e.g. MONITORASPECT=16:9). Screen resolution can also be used (e.g. MONITORASPECT=1680:1050).
MONITORPARAM Forces specific display monitor parameters, useful when changing display resolution (works only with VESA driver on cards supporting VBE 3.0). The parameters should be separated by colon character in following order: hfreq:vfreq:dotclock eg. MONITORPARAM=30k-70k:50-160:10M-110M
Warning: specifing too high values may damage monitor. More information can be found in MPlayer's documentation.
DVDLANG 2 letter country code for selecting DVD audio track language.
DVDSUB 2 letter country code for selecting DVD subtitle language.
DVDNAV Use menu navigation for DVD movies (yes or no, default DVDNAV=no).
DVDTITLE Default title number for DVD (by default the longest is chosen).
VCDTRACK Default track for VCD (by default VCDTRACK=2).
ARGS arguments string for MPlayer during its first run. It can be changed later from the menu to VESAARGS or FBARGS. By default the system chooses appropriate values. More information can be found in MPlayer's documentation. This option is for advanced users only!
Warning: In this distribution MPlayer is stripped from some filters and other features so not all options are available.
VSARGS or VESAARGS Forces MPlayer's arguments for VESA. Notes as above.
FBARGS Forces MPlayer's arguments for FBDEV. Notes as above.
FBITIME or TIMEOUT Time (in seconds) during slide show after which next picture is automatically displayed (1 to 60, this is disabled by default).
FBIRAND During slide show pictures will be shown in random order (yes or no, by default FBIRAND=no).
FBIONCE Show all picture only once - do not loop (yes or no, by default FBIONCE=yes).
FIRSTRUN Decide what should be played during first run: divx (divx/mp3/...), img (picture slide show), imgmus (picture slide show with music). Default: FIRSTRUN=divx.
MOUNTRW Mounts HDD partitions in read/write mode (yes or no, does not affect NTFS). By default all partitions are mounted read only for safety reasons.
HALT Turn off computer after playback (yes or no, default: HALT=no).
NOAUTOSTART After booting the system do not start playing automatically from CD but display menu (yes or no, by default the system plays everything from CD: NOAUTOSTART=no).

Examples:

Example 1:
Change CD drive speed to 16x, loop film playback, when stopped eject the CD:

CDSPEED=16
LOOP=yes
EJECT=yes

Example 2:
Instead of film playback start picture slide show with background music after booting. Change resolution to 1024x768, each picture display for 10 seconds, resize picture to screen resolution, do not use random order, show only once and when finished turn off computer:

FIRSTRUN=imgmus
RESOLUTION=1024x768
FBITIME=10
FBIZOOM=yes
FBIRAND=no
FBIONCE=yes
HALT=yes

Packages

Packages contain additional files/programs extending capabilities of Cinemix. In basic version Cinemix does not require any packages to work, they are should be installed only when necessary. You should note however that whole system resides in ramdisk so the packages need to be installed during each boot of the system.

There are two ways to install packages:

  1. By copying packages installation files into CINEMIX/install directory on a CD (evantually on a hard drive after installation). In this case the packages will be "installed" automatically during each system boot. This method is recommended if the packages are required every time the system runs.
  2. By entering shell and issuing command:
    install /full_package_path/package_name.txgz
    This is recommended if you want to use the package only once (eg hdinst.txz)

Additional kernel modules

If Cinemix can't recognize specific hardware like sound card, you can use module loading option. In this case you should download appropriate archive with modules and unpack its conents into CINEMIX/modules directory on the CD.
By default graphics card framebuffer module and sound card module are loaded during system startup, but only when necessary If during system start ALLMODULES option is used the system tries to load all available modules. Support for the most popular graphics and sound cards is compiled in kernel and does not require modules installation.
Note: kernel modules work only when their verion is cmpatible with kernel version.