Installing FreeGuide on Mac OS X

People who have successfully installed FreeGuide on the Mac have often had to build some parts of it from scratch. There is information about how to do this here: BuildFreeGuideOnMac.

Get Java

You will need the Java 2 Runtime Environment version 1.6 or above: You can check this by typing java -version in a terminal. Ask on the FreeGuide Users' mailing list (see the ContactUs page) if you have trouble installing Java.

Get XMLTV

You will need to install XMLTV. We don't have specific instructions available for Mac OS X, but the InstallXMLTVFromSource instructions may help. Please ContactUs if you get this working, so we can improve these instructions.

Get FreeGuide

Now, download the file freeguide-x.y.z.dmg from the download page. You may need to look at older versions if the .dmg file isn't available in the latest release.

Mount the downloaded .dmg file so you can see what's inside.

Drag Freeguide.app from the mounted disk image to the Applications Folder.

Double click on Freeguide.app to start the program. Answer the initial questions you are asked. Uncheck the "Choose channels" checkbox when you see it. Click "No" when asked whether you want to download listings.

In the menu go to Tools and Options. Expand the Advanced node, and expand Grabbers. Click XMLTV.

Change the paths to the appropriate tv_grab_* perl scripts executable in the two text entries, so that they are the full absolute paths.

Click Configure to choose your channels, and answer the questions.

Click OK, and you should be able to click "Download listings" to download.

ContactUs if you have any problems and we'll try to help you get it working.