SER Video Player for Linux (Debian package)

[cgarry]

I have finally produced a .deb package for my .ser file video player to compliment the Windows and OS X versions.  This should make it easier to install/remove for users of Debian based Linux such as Ubuntu or Mint.  This is the first time I have created a Debian package and would appreciate feedback from those who try it out.  I am especially interested in knowing which distributions it fails to install and run on as I have only tried it on recent versions of Ubuntu and Mint.

Linux (32-bit) .deb: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/ser_player_debug/ser-player_1.1.5-1_i386.deb

Linux (64-bit) .deb: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/ser_player_debug/ser-player_1.1.5-1_amd64.deb

And a short .ser file for testing: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/ser_player_debug/Jup_200415_204534_R.zip

Cheers,

Chris

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very interesting. OpenSUSE shop here so I cannot test it, alas

[lock042]

Downloaded and installed.

Thank you, very useful !!

[cgarry]

Very interesting. OpenSUSE shop here so I cannot test it, alas

Actually it is good to know which non-Debian versions are in use.  Eventually I plan/hope to produce both RPM and Debian source packages so it should be much easier to support most Linux distros.  Of course that involves me actually figuring out how to do make source packages.

[cgarry]

Downloaded and installed.

Thank you, very useful !!

Good stuff!  Out of interest, which Linux version are you using?

[lock042]

I am on Debian.

There are some Lintian errors but that's ok

E: ser-player: binary-or-shlib-defines-rpath usr/lib/ser-player/SER-Player /home/cgarry/Qt/5.4/gcc_64/libE: ser-player: binary-or-shlib-defines-rpath usr/lib/ser-player/SER-Player /home/cgarry/Qt/5.4/gcc_64E: ser-player: embedded-library usr/lib/ser-player/libs/libQt5Core.so.5: zlibE: ser-player: embedded-library usr/lib/ser-player/libs/libQt5Gui.so.5: libpngW: ser-player: shared-lib-without-dependency-information usr/lib/ser-player/libs/libicudata.so.53E: ser-player: embedded-library usr/lib/ser-player/plugins/imageformats/libqjpeg.so: libjpegE: ser-player: embedded-library usr/lib/ser-player/plugins/imageformats/libqtiff.so: tiffE: ser-player: debian-changelog-file-missing-or-wrong-nameE: ser-player: description-is-pkg-name SER PlayerW: ser-player: binary-without-manpage usr/bin/SER-PlayerLintian finished with exit status 1

Are you sources open ? If yes, do you have any link ?

[cgarry]

I am on Debian.

There are some Lintian errors but that's ok

E: ser-player: binary-or-shlib-defines-rpath usr/lib/ser-player/SER-Player /home/cgarry/Qt/5.4/gcc_64/libE: ser-player: binary-or-shlib-defines-rpath usr/lib/ser-player/SER-Player /home/cgarry/Qt/5.4/gcc_64E: ser-player: embedded-library usr/lib/ser-player/libs/libQt5Core.so.5: zlibE: ser-player: embedded-library usr/lib/ser-player/libs/libQt5Gui.so.5: libpngW: ser-player: shared-lib-without-dependency-information usr/lib/ser-player/libs/libicudata.so.53E: ser-player: embedded-library usr/lib/ser-player/plugins/imageformats/libqjpeg.so: libjpegE: ser-player: embedded-library usr/lib/ser-player/plugins/imageformats/libqtiff.so: tiffE: ser-player: debian-changelog-file-missing-or-wrong-nameE: ser-player: description-is-pkg-name SER PlayerW: ser-player: binary-without-manpage usr/bin/SER-PlayerLintian finished with exit status 1

Are you sources open ? If yes, do you have any link ?

Slightly different Lintian errors than I see on Ubuntu, cleaning those up is on my to-do list.

I plan to move the sources to GitHub once the project structure is as suitable as is possible for building all for all targets.  But for now here is a link to a zipped version of the project:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/ser_player_debug/ser_player_src_v1.1.5.zip

To build I am using Qt 5.4.1 with Qt creator.

(1) Open project file with Qt creator: ser_player_src/ser_player/ser_player.pro

(2) Qt creator->Build->Run qmake

(3) Qt creator->Build->Build All

This will/should create a binary executable in: ser_player_src/bin/

To create a Debian package with this executable:

(4) Open a terminal:

(5) $ cd ser_player_src/linux_release/

(6) Edit make_release_amd64.sh to set the ser_player_version.

(7) $ ./make_release_amd64.sh

The package should be created in ser_player_src/linux_release/

Cheers,

Chris

[lock042]

I plan to move the sources to GitHub once the project structure is as suitable as is possible for building all for all targets.  But for now here is a link to a zipped version of the project:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1139742/ser_player_debug/ser_player_src_v1.1.5.zip

Great. Let us know when you'll do it.

[vincent-FA]

Yeah, I'll make an Arch Linux AUR package and I'll add a reference to free-astro when it's available.

[cgarry]

Right, after a lot learning all about Git (and GitHub) I have moved the ser-player sources to GitHub:

https://github.com/cgarry/ser-player

There are various tweaks and corrections I wanted to make before doing this but since I have not found time for that I thought it was worth getting the existing code on GitHub anyway.

Cheers,

Chris

[vincent-FA]

Thanks for the share Chris.

I don't know much about Qt, I won't be able to generate a package if you use only Qt Creator to build it. Is there a possibility to create autotools or cmake files with this tool?

Cheers,

Vincent

[cgarry]

Hi Vincent,

You do not actually need to use Qt Creator.  I like to use it as it gives me a consistent IDE on Windows, OS X and Linux.  However, to build using the terminal you just do this:

> cd ser-player/ser_player/

> qmake ser_player.pro

> make

This will create the binary executable in ser-player/bin/.

Basically the 'qmake' step builds the standard Makefile (and a few other things) and then 'make' actually does the building.  On Arch Linux you may need to use 'qmake-qt5' instead of 'qmake'.

This web page may help:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Qt

Does this help?

Also, if you are generating a package to go into a repository then I think we probably need to disable the 'new version available' check the SER Player currently does.

Cheers,

Chris

[JamesF]

qmake doesn't combine particularly nicely with autotools, but I can probably put something together that will work if it would help.  Just not this week as I have rather too much on already.

James

[cgarry]

Thanks James, I was hoping you would spot this.

It is my understanding that qmake is understood by the Debian package tools so it is not difficult to make a Debian source package from a Qt project.  So, is this autotools stuff just required for Arch Linux packages?

I am very slowly getting up speed with deployment on Linux systems but it is requiring 1000x more effort that Windows and OS X deployment...

Chris

[JamesF]

Have to admit that I'm not sure which distributions need it and which don't, Chris.

I used autotools for oacapture because the build is quite complex, but for your application it would be nice if the whole thing could "just work" using qmake.

James

[vincent-FA]

Oh I don't think that autotools is absolutely required for Arch Linux. The build system is quite flexible.

I just didn't know how to use qmake, I will try to do what you suggested, and if it works on the command line it will work for the package.

Thank you!

[vincent-FA]

I finally made the Arch Linux AUR package. It was really easy with qmake and make, I didn't have a single issue/error.

The tool is working greatly, and the real-time debayer is quite impressive.

Thanks a lot!

[cgarry]

I finally made the Arch Linux AUR package. It was really easy with qmake and make, I didn't have a single issue/error.

The tool is working greatly, and the real-time debayer is quite impressive.

Thanks a lot!

That is excellent news, thanks for all your efforts.

[lock042]

Your software is now one of my favorites.

I think you should contact the "Astrononmy team" of the Debian project. In order to add your software to the debian repository .

[cgarry]

Your software is now one of my favorites.

I think you should contact the "Astrononmy team" of the Debian project. In order to add your software to the debian repository .

Thanks!  For a few weeks now I have been working to understand how to build a Debian Source Package from a project based on qmake.  So far I have completely failed!  Once I can build a Debian Source Package I want to try and get the application added to the Debian repository.  I did not realise that they had a specific 'Astronomy team' but that is useful to know.

Cheers,

Chris