Arch Linux User Repository

I recommend not running this program as root, for good security practice. That said, if you want to do it anyway and are willing to take the risks that it eats your hard drive, read along.

When attempting to run as root, the GUI window will appear but without any contents. This was reported upstream in 2015 at https://forum.scootersoftware.com/forum/beyond-compare-4-discussion/linux-aa/12397-running-bcompare-as-root but its developers decided it was a KDE bug. They reported it to Fedora as a KDE bug at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1185893 but Fedora decided it was an application side bug, and they gave the good advice to not run GUI apps as root.

A workaround is:

$ sudo QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=native bcompare

Again, run a GUI as root at your own risk. (FWIW, it worked fine for me.)

This workaround only works on a local machine. Over a ssh session, even with X forwarding, it will give "X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication." I didn't work through what the workaround for that would be, but it'll have something to do with /root/.Xauthority and/or xauth.

For a moment, I considered that the /usr/bin/bcompare bash script could be updated to check for root permissions and automatically export this environment variable. But, I see that bash script comes from upstream so is probably best left alone. Also, it's probably not a good idea to make it easier for people to run the program as root without understanding the dangers.

@eliminater74, it might sometimes be useful to use the strace command from a terminal the following way:

$> strace bcompare

I hope it helps!

I keep geting: "usr/bin/bcompare: line 47: 42996 Segmentation fault (core dumped) /bin/bash -c "exec -a $0 $EXEC $ARGS > /dev/null 2>&1" $0"

any ideas?

it seems that the context menu for kde5 depend on kinit package

Updated to version 4.4.2.26348.

Enjoy!

BTW, I've fixed my issue - just switched to Wayland. So, it doesn't work with X11, but it is fine in Wayland.

I've got the same exit code - 216. Where I can check the logs? Funny thing, it doesn't work on my home computer, but works fine on my work PC.

I've got a similar output of that guy in that thread, even without config folder and after recompile and reinstall of bcompare, but nothing useful.

Runtime error 216 at $000000001D20207F
  $000000001D20207F

If it works for everyone else it means it has to be something on my end, but I don't know how to debug a runtime error...

I'm getting an 32-bit binary installed on my 64-bit system:

/usr/lib/beyondcompare/bcmount32

Also, there are missing dependencies for some of these files:

File "/usr/lib/beyondcompare/BCompare" from package "bcompare" is missing dependency "lib7z.so"
File "/usr/lib/beyondcompare/BCompare" from package "bcompare" is missing dependency "libQt4Pas.so.5"
File "/usr/lib/beyondcompare/libQt4Pas.so.5" from package "bcompare" is missing dependency "libQtGui.so.4"
File "/usr/lib/beyondcompare/libQt4Pas.so.5" from package "bcompare" is missing dependency "libQtCore.so.4"
File "/usr/lib/beyondcompare/qt4/libQtGui.so.4" from package "bcompare" is missing dependency "libQtCore.so.4"

Also, the install script is raising an error (but ultimately succeeding):

==> Starting package_bcompare()...
install.sh: line 211: kde4-config: command not found
======================================
Please place the following in your .bashrc or .cshrc (etc.)
export PATH=/home/matt/.cache/yay/bcompare/src/install/bin:$PATH
======================================
Executable is /home/matt/.cache/yay/bcompare/src/install/bin/bcompare

@G4Zz0L1, I don't know reason why you're getting that error, but I found this link that could be useful.

I hope it helps.