Arch Linux User Repository

You are free to report issues regarding the packaging here! Please read all the info of this message as they include quite some information.

Be aware that sometimes the package will fail to build because of outdated upstream and updated dependency, which will require me some time to test and solve the problem.

I do also have life stuff, packaging is a free-time activity.

I believe I have an issue that is Arch-related and not upstream related

I too found out only recently this way to debug the app (as of: 2021-06-13), which helps immensely.

Whenever reporting here or on the Github issues, please provide the output of the command:

popcorntime --enable-logging=stderr

In case you are forwarding the log to a file, as the log entries will end in stderr, remember to redirect stderr to stdout

popcorntime --enable-logging=stderr 2>&1 > my_output.log

Info regarding the package

1. The package uses the sources available at: https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop. I am aware of the different clones and branches; I do still believe that this code is acceptable (not affected itself from malware).

2. This package uses a custom NW.js build provided from the PopcornTime team; essentially, a custom compiled browser. While this won't affect you as it should be used only within the app, you are here informed that I have no power over this component.

3. The above point stands as the official NW.js Chromium source lacks multiple modern codecs, such as AC3 and HEVC (H.265).

4. Earlier this package used the official nw.js toolchain provided available at https://dl.nwjs.io/ and the prebuilt FFmpeg library with additional codecs available at https://github.com/iteufel/nwjs-ffmpeg-prebuilt/ . This was because the nw.js toolchain provided by the PopcornTime team can not be proven as non-malware easily. However, due to point 3, this approach was reverted. You are free to use an older PKGBUILD with the appropriate variable updates to re-enable this, however you will miss support for recent codecs.

5. In addition, the PKGBUILD won't point to the Git release reference but will also include important commits, for e.g. security reasons or providers changes.

@je-vv yes, the error is safe to ignore.

It is a gulp build step where they report missing dependencies, that are however solved from NW.JS builder. :)

Thanks a lot @ItachiSan, it seems to be working back.

BTW, I see some npm error, but I'm guessing they are don't care, since I remember seen errors before, and popcorntime still working:

Error: Command failed: npm ls --all=true --production=true --parseable=true
npm ERR! code ELSPROBLEMS
npm ERR! invalid: backbone@1.4.0 /home/general/.pkgs/src/laur/popcorntime/src/popcorn-desktop/node_modules/backbone
npm ERR! invalid: underscore@1.12.1 /home/general/.pkgs/src/laur/popcorntime/src/popcorn-desktop/node_modules/underscore
npm ERR! invalid: webtorrent@0.118.0 /home/general/.pkgs/src/laur/popcorntime/src/popcorn-desktop/node_modules/webtorrent
npm ERR! invalid: bittorrent-protocol@3.3.1 /home/general/.pkgs/src/laur/popcorntime/src/popcorn-desktop/node_modules/bittorrent-protocol
npm ERR! invalid: http-node@1.2.0 /home/general/.pkgs/src/laur/popcorntime/src/popcorn-desktop/node_modules/http-node
npm ERR! invalid: vtt.js@0.12.1 /home/general/.pkgs/src/laur/popcorntime/src/popcorn-desktop/node_modules/vtt.js

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/general/.npm/_logs/2021-07-29T20_47_08_980Z-debug.log

    at ChildProcess.exithandler (node:child_process:397:12)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:394:28)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:domain:532:15)
    at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1067:16)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:301:5)
    at Process.callbackTrampoline (node:internal/async_hooks:130:17) {
  killed: false,
  code: 1,
  signal: null,
  cmd: 'npm ls --all=true --production=true --parseable=true'
}

These are to be ignored, right?

Hi @je-vv,

I am currently on holiday, so I have some but little time to work on side projects (the seaside calls :P)

I've verified and confirmed all the issues & solutions. You are correct, I used 0.4.5 plus a few extra commits which however made PopcornTime unusable.

I've now changed the PKGBUILD in order to build from the tag. :)

One thing I noticed though, is that the AUR popcorntime package is using commit:

https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/commit/076d4dc387c58d2dcb4d9c1482c226fed749c251

Whereas the 0.4.5 release is using commit:

https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/commit/47c1b6cfa54d5f146291da43c355a6ecaba07d35

The one used by the package, on master, is around 35 commits ahead of the one for release 0.4.5. Could it be @ItachiSan that you got an unstable commit?

Is it possible to use the released tarball instead of git commits? And if in need grab specific commits/patches for specific fixes, then do so? Like, for 0.4.5, use instead of a git commit:

https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/archive/refs/tags/v0.4.5.tar.gz

And additional commits as patches as needed? At this point, the current commit used by the AUR package is not the one for 0.4.5, neither top of master. There might be some fixes ahead of it for its current behavior...

Thanks !

It seems the issue from popcorntime is actually not being able to read at leas some of the configurations, such as the custo APIs... I installed popcorntime-bin, and the issue doesn't show up with popcorntime-bin, which means the configs seem fine, but I pretty much prefer using Arch/Artix built packages than *-bin ones. I have no clue why the built popcorntime can't read the configurations/preferences...

@ItachiSan, it seems whenever starting popcorntime after the last upgrade (to 0.4.5-1), the license agreement is always shown. Also the custom API settings (required to specify *-ru.tk) are always lost, so popcorntime can't be used (the change to the custom apis require popcorn to be restarted), since on start, the prior settings are lost. Any ways to fix or work this around? Thanks !

Thanks @ItachiSan, actually I realized the -ru.tk api server was already an option one could select for movies and series. So pretty cool. Unfortunately it doesn't show up for anime, neither it works writing it as the server for anime. Anime seems to remain unreachable with whatever default server or with -ru.tk. Any suggestion?

Thanks @ItachiSan, I though that was part of the changes incorporated from the RU sources, hehe... My mistake. I'll try changing the API server URLs to https://popcorn-ru.tk/ and testing, later, when having some time, and then report back...

Thanks again !

@je-vv you may be interested in this:

https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/issues/2105

Thanks @ItashiSan. Now the GUI shows up, :)

Unfortunately, it doesn't connect to anything, the GUI doesn't offer anything, and it keeps trying connecting somewhere but it remains trying forever, :(

So no joy with popcorntime yet...