Having trouble installing from source code

[drjswalker]

I unpacked the source code (master) into a directory and am at a loss as to what to do mext. I ran python main.py but it complained about the lisp module being missing. Any ideas what to do next?

[FrancescoCeruti]

Take a look at these instructions: https://linux-show-player-users.readthedocs.io/en/develop/installation.html#manually

[s0600204]

Disclaimer: I think I've got package names correct below, but as I don't have access to a "live" Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora/Gentoo/CentOS system, I haven't tested to make sure.

To quote the guide:

You should install these libraries/packages using your package manager

None of the list needs installing via pip - everything that could be installed from the PyPI is done so via poetry. (Except poetry itself, as we need poetry installed before running poetry.)

Linux Show Player requires python 3.8 or better. Most Linux distributions have transitioned to python 3.x being the default (over python 2.x) (citation needed), and some have even removed python 2.x entirely. However for those distributions (os OSes, such as macOS) where such things matter, python3 should be substituted where necessary. (If you've previously been running Linux Show Player 0.5 successfully, then you should already be okay in this regard.)

You appear to have poetry already, but for completeness sake:

• python3-poetry (Debian, Ubuntu, other Debian-derived distros)
• python-poetry (ArchLinux)
• poetry (Gentoo, Fedora)

---

GStreamer works on the basis of plugins - small(ish) libraries that each handle a specific codec, file type, audio-api, etc. Most of these plugins are placed into one of four groupings: Base, Good, Ugly, and Bad. The reasoning for this can be found here: https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/additional/splitup.html.

For a functional system, only the Base plugins need to be installed. For an actually useful system, one or all three of the others should also be installed, depending on which file types you expect to encounter, your taste for well constructed/maintained/tested code, and how well you wish to adhere to the ideals of free-as-in-freedom versus free-as-in-free-beer.

There are some plugins that don't get bundled into these, and must be installed separately. gst-libav is one of them.

On a Debian, Ubuntu, and such-derived systems, these can be found as:

• gstreamer1.0-plugins-good
• gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly
• gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad
• gstreamer1.0-libav

For ArchLinux, Gentoo systems:

• gst-plugins-good
• gst-plugins-ugly
• gst-plugins-bad
• gst-libav (ArchLinux)
• gst-plugins-libav (Gentoo)

For Fedora, CentOS systems:

• gstreamer1-plugins-good
• gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free
• gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free
• gstreamer1-plugin-libav (Not available on CentOS)

(Installing any one of the above should also install the Base plugins as a dependency, which itself pulls in GStreamer.)

---

From the poetry install failure you appear to have not installed the alsa-lib development files:

• libasound2-dev (Debian, Ubuntu, and other derived)
• alsa-lib-devel (Fedora, CentOS)

(ArchLinux and Gentoo users should have them installed so long as they have ALSA itself installed.)

---

From the poetry run linux-show-player errors, you appear to have not installed the Open Lighting Architecture ("OLA"). This is only used (at the moment) to add support for a particular form of timecode, so you can safely ignore this. Also, the installation guide makes the following note:

You might also need to install ola, for ArtNet timecode. However, using the method described below, it’s not possile to use it.

Not sure why not, but I'm sure Francesco will elaborate.

If you do wish to install it:

• ola

Which is also the package name for users on Gentoo, as well as those on ArchLinux (albeit available from the AUR). Fedora and CentOS distros don't appear to carry it.

---

The development files for rtmidi shouldn't, I think, be needed - poetry will either decide to use the manylinux wheel from PyPI - which contains a prebuilt connection to rtmidi inside - or it will download and build from the tarball, also from PyPI - which contains the development files.

---

The development files for liblo should be:

• liblo-dev (Debian and derived)
• liblo-devel (Fedora)

(And once again, ArchLinux and Gentoo can just install liblo. And CentOS doesn't carry it.)

---

What's not mentioned in the build instructions is the requirement for Qt5 and Qt5-SVG:

• libqt5svg5 (Debian, Ubuntu, etc.)
• qt5-svg (ArchLinux)
• qt5-qtsvg (Fedora, CentOS)
• qtsvg (Gentoo - appears to be the Qt6 version, but their distro-provided version of LiSP 0.5.3 indirectly depends on it, so it must work? 🤷)

Any of which should also pull in Qt5 as a dependency.

---

Think that's the bulk of it. Sorry for the wall of text.

[FrancescoCeruti]

Thanks @s0600204 👍 I'll update the docs to include distro-specific package name.

You might also need to install ola, for ArtNet timecode. However, using the method described below, it’s not possile to use it.

Not sure why not, but I'm sure Francesco will elaborate.

To use ola we need two pieces, the daemon and the python client library. AFAIK we're missing an "official" pypi package, OpenLightingProject/ola#1451. Also I'm not sure how it might behave if different versions of daemon and client are installed.

What's not mentioned in the build instructions is the requirement for Qt5 and Qt5-SVG

The qt binaries are provided via pypi by pyqt5-qt5 (they already ship the SVG plugin)

[kzembower]

@s0600204 and @FrancescoCeruti , thank you both so much. No apology necessary for all the text; it was just what I needed.

I apologize in advance for asking you to troubleshoot my individual problems, but I'm stuck again. I verified and installed all the software that @s0600204 mentioned, but now have an error that prevents LiSP from running at all.

When I was trying on my own to set up LiSP, I installed poetry via pipx. Then, following @s0600204's directions, I installed it again with apt-get install python3-poetry. When I tried to run LiSP, I got:

$ poetry run linux-show-player

  RuntimeError

  The Poetry configuration is invalid:
    - Additional properties are not allowed ('group' was unexpected)
  

  at /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/poetry/core/factory.py:43 in create_poetry
       39│             message = ""
       40│             for error in check_result["errors"]:
       41│                 message += "  - {}\n".format(error)
       42│ 
    →  43│             raise RuntimeError("The Poetry configuration is invalid:\n" + message)
       44│ 
       45│         # Load package
       46│         name = local_config["name"]
       47│         version = local_config["version"]
$

Trying to fix this, I removed poetry with 'pip uninstall poetry' which seemed to work. However, I still get the error. In addition, the file ~/.config/pypoetry/config.toml is present, but with zero size. I've also tried running 'poetry config' but it seems to do nothing, and the size of config.toml is unchanged. 'poetry' points to:

$ which poetry
/usr/bin/poetry
$ ll /usr/bin/poetry 
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 213 Jan 11  2023 /usr/bin/poetry*
$ 

Any suggestions on what to do next? Thank you for any advice or directions you can offer.

-Kevin

[FrancescoCeruti]

No problem :-) The version from the repository is likely too old. Remove that version, apt remove python3-poetry, and reinstall with pipx, it should work.

[s0600204]

The version from the repository is likely too old

1.1.12 according to Repology, so yes it is. My mistake not double checking the version when collating package names above. (Users of Fedora 37 and earlier would also need to install poetry from the PyPI.)