(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

The Videolan people have released VLC 3.0.2
This new major version upgrade requires ffmpeg 3.x and Qt5
Dpup Stretch has ffmpeg 3.x
I added some Qt5 packages via PPM plus the missing libxcb libraries and compiled the source.
It seems to start and run OK in my brief tests.
It probably won't work in Puppies other than Stretch though.
If anyone wants to test it, TAKE PRECAUTIONS as you deem appropriate.
Packages contain the runtime libraries so it should be standalone install-and-go.
Uploaded here:-
https://yadi.sk/d/nxx9TP2i3HcXB5?force_show=1

EDIT:- Version now 3.0.2
I added matroska libraries hopefully for improved .mkv handling?
Many other "optional" libraries added.
Chromecast support may be working - please test.

Thanks OscarTalks, on limited usage stretch vlc-3.0.0-i686-stretch.sfs is working fine on my laptop running radky's stretch 7.5. Only have some mp4's from my phone, but they play no issues. Also plays mp3 fine too.

Hi Oscar
Congratulations for your succesful compiling of VLC 3.0. I tried my best with Xenial64 but failed. I solved most of the severe problems (significantly more with respect to version 2.2.8; even qt5). My last unbreachable step is a compiler stop due to undefined references in some avcodec modules which prevent the build of the libavcodec plugin.

/vlc-3.0.1/modules/codec/avcodec/encoder.c undefined reference to `avcodec_receive_packet'
recipe for target 'libavcodec_plugin.la' failed

Disable libavcodec might help but is not my intention.
How did you get it build ?
Many thanks in advance for a short hint.

Christian

Hello Christian,

I am only a student/experimenter so I could be wrong about any of these things.
I believe that building with libavcodec disabled may get the build to complete, but you will have lots of common codecs missing so you are right to dismiss this idea.

I believe that the issue is that VLC 3.x will only build against ffmpeg 3.x and VLC 2.x will only build against ffmpeg 2.x

Xenial has ffmpeg 2.x but Stretch has ffmpeg 3.x

One thing you could do in Xenial is create a build environment with upgraded ffmpeg and then include the newer libraries in a private location inside the VLC package with a wrapper script. This is what I had to do in Stretch. I compiled a downgraded ffmpeg in order to be able to compile VLC 2.2.8 but I did not have to do this for VLC 3.0.0 in Stretch.

Someone may know of a better method (such as a patch) and if so it would be good to hear about it.

There is one desktop computer I have in which my VLC 3.0.0 does not run, but this is fed into my large-screen TV as a monitor and I think this causes some sort of hardware incompatibility. The VLC 2.2.8 does run fine in the same hardware. In all my other test machines the VLC 3.0.0 is working OK.

Thank you Oscar for your estimates. This is exactly what I did.
Remove ffmpeg and qt4 from Xenial64. Then I compiled the 3.4.2 ffmpeg which itself needed lots of updated libs as a kind of a domino effect ... to achieve your said build environment.

I used this vlc build experiment to investigate the usability of x264 (10bit) and x265 (10bit, 12bit). I do not think this is responsible for my failures but maybe I should build first with less experimental content.

Best regards

Christian

By the way, vlc3.0.0 assumed the wrong path of some of the qt5 QtGui-headers which are now located in QtWidgets.

Bionic PPM shows VLC 3.0.1 available for download. Not tried because Gnome-mplayer 1.0.9 included in Peebee's Puppy enough for me.

I have now compiled VLC 3.0.1 in DpupStretch (32bit)
I added matroska libraries to this build (libebml and libmatroska)
This creates an additional plugin for handling .mkv which is quite common these days.
I believe ffmpeg may do this as a fallback otherwise.
It still does not work on my large screen TV - something about "Negative sizes are not possible" so not sure what that means. OK on all other test machines though.
See first post.

Hi Oscar
Thanks for the work on VLC 3.01, it's my favorite do anything media player. I just used the sfs in radky's Stretch 7.5 and is working well except for the Chromecast ability. When I open playback>renderer my Chromecast device does not show and it just has a greyed out "scanning" entry. I have the Windows version of VLC 3.01 on the same computer and Chromecast works there. Did I miss something in the LInux version?

Hello WiZard,

When the configure script runs there are a number of messages and Chromecast was one that I did recall seeing.

It seems that compiling VLC with Chromecast support requires some build-time dependencies (protobuf) which are not present in Dpup Stretch so the build is automatically configured without it (it is optional).

I can add these dependencies in the build environment and then VLC builds with some extra plugins for Chromecast which do appear in the plugins list, but since I don't use Chromecast and don't have any devices I don't think I can test it. These plugins depend on the libprotobuf-lite runtime library so this has to be included in the package (which I have done).

I have re-uploaded with these changes if you wish to test and report back.
https://yadi.sk/d/nxx9TP2i3HcXB5?force_show=1

@Oscar
Loaded the new sfs and got the same result. I tried it from the menu and also from the terminal, no error messages. Not sure how we can troubleshoot it. Thanks for the quick response and giving it a try.

Gary

Another thought has struck me. I wonder if upnp is needed since it is a plug-in device?
The configure script again reports this as not present so disables automatically.
I can try adding dev libs and headers to the build environment and runtime libs to the package and see if it makes any difference.

Could be, I know that upnp is required if you want to connect to a dlna server. I'm willing to test anything you want to try.

Thanks
Gary

Hello Gary,

OK, I have re-uploaded.
Three more runtime libraries are now added and the plugin is built. It is found in the "services_discovery" section of the plugins.
UPnP should now be enabled. Don't know if it will help but worth a try.
https://yadi.sk/d/nxx9TP2i3HcXB5?force_show=1

Still not showing any Chromecast device wish I could be of more help.

thanks
Gary

Since the Chromecast device is a piece of plug-in hardware I am wondering if it is actually recognised on the system.

It may be that you need to load a kernel module or something.

Does the device show up in Pup-SysInfo or HardInfo, for example?
Does it work with anything else in Puppy at all?
As a test, you might want to try SMplayer and see if Chromecast is recognised or if it works in that.
http://smokey01.com/OscarTalks

@oscar
answers to your questions:

Does the device show up in Pup-SysInfo or HardInfo, for example?
-no, but since it is a network device not directly connected it probably would not.

Does it work with anything else in Puppy at all?
-not that I know

As a test, you might want to try SMplayer and see if Chromecast is recognised or if it works in that.
-that became a whole new problem. SMplayer requires the Chrome browser with the Chromecast extension "Google Cast". Google Cast has been discontinued since at some version casting is built into Chrome.

I did load Chromium 52 which has casting built in and it could not find the Chromecast device either, but that could be an issue with Chromium.

I tried this in both Slacko 6.3.0 & Stretch 7.5.

May need to increase alcohol consumption

thanks
Gary

vlc-astuces-faq
Tutorial pour France.

Hi Oscar

I'm still testing trying to find a clue as to why chromecast doesn't work in VLC 3.01. I found several threads by forum member ETP who created several puplets for chromemcast. Most require the "google cast" extension which is no longer available. Chromebook-pupv1 already had the google cast extension included, so I did a frugal install. This puppy did find the chromecast device & could cast from the browser.

This validated that my device is discoverable in puppy and chromecast can be done.

I've also tested peedbee's chromium 52 & 65, which include the casting feature, in stretch 7.5, slacko 6.3.0 & xenial 7.5 without success. I'm going to post in the chromium thread to see if anyone has casting working.

Gary

Hello Gary,

Without having an example of the physical device it is difficult for me to conduct any further testing of this issue. Sometimes when I sleep on things or have a few cups of tea, other ideas hit me, but so far nothing further has.

All I can tell you is that all the messages and other indications from the compiling process suggest that Chromecast support has been built, but obviously something is still not right. There are other missing optional dependencies that are flagged up, but I didn't spot anything that looked relevant to this.

So it is good that you are still on the case and maybe others with experience of this device will chime in. It is a new feature in VLC which they supposedly improved from 3.0.0. to 3.0.1 but it could be that they still have work to do on it. If someone is able to identify any step which I need to include in the compiling process I will gladly give it another try.

EDIT:-
One question worth considering.
Does Chromecast support in VLC 3.0.1 require dbus?
DpupStretch has a very old dbus .pet
Configure script warns about this and (I think) disables dbus.
I will investigate options for an upgrade of dbus (Stretch .deb packages or build from source?) and then maybe try a test re-compile of VLC when I get some time.

I have now re-uploaded VLC 3.0.1 for Stretch Pup

This version has D-Bus enabled.
I am not optimistic that this will fix the Chromecast operation, but it is worth a try.
To fully test, it may be necessary to upgrade your dbus package in DpupStretch as well.
D-Bus has a daemon as well as a library - be sure any upgrade has fully worked and it has been restarted.

I have also enabled some other libraries and functions including:-
libarchive
chromaprint
libshout
libmodplug
libmpg123
live555
libSDL_image
libshout
libspeex and libspeexdsp

Strictly for TESTING, download .pet or .sfs from here:-
https://yadi.sk/d/nxx9TP2i3HcXB5?force_show=1