Questions about Desktop MoviePlayer in the Linux environment

Targets Raspberry Pi
1

I am revisiting my Comvette Project Xojo code because I want to move from a Raspberry Pi 3 to a Raspberry Pi 5. However, a lot of things have changed and the OMXPlayer has been deprecated. My Comvette software relies heavily on OMXPlayer so now I’m looking for alternatives.

Currently my Xojo code simply shells out and spawns the OMXPlayer. Once OMXPlayer is running I can control it with DBUS commands. This has worked nicely since the OMXPlayer is running in its own process space and leaves my Xojo code free to respond quickly to user interaction.

My first attempt to use the Xojo Desktop MoviePlayer yielded some very strange results. I created a window upon which I placed a desktop MoviePlayer and a button to start playing a movie. On my desktop (running the latest Ubuntu) the program worked as expected. However, when I deployed the program to my Raspberry Pi 5 (running the latest Raspberry Pi OS) the video player lept from my window into a new window (which I did not create.) So, what in the world is going on here??? The ultimate target for my code is my Raspberry Pi.

2

As noted in our documentation, for now the DesktopMoviePlayer on Linux only works “properly” under X11. Under Wayland your movie will be detached from your window.

3

Is this something that will be addressed as most Linux systems are moving to Wayland as their default?

4

i’m wondering about the same thing. Wayland is increasingly being pushed. Xojo falling behind.

5

This is something we should and can be addressed so sign on if you haven’t already https://tracker.xojo.com/xojoinc/xojo/-/issues/77939

2 Likes
6

I saw that William Yu closed the issue (https://tracker.xojo.com/xojoinc/xojo/-/issues/77939) and stated that gstreamer fixes this, but after running:

sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-gtk3

on my Raspberry Pi 5 w/latest Raspberry Pi OS I still get the Desktop MoviePlayer spawning a new window. Is there something more that I need to do?

7

It says milstone 2025R3 so i guess you have to wait until a beta or release?

8

@DerkJ Thanks for pointing that out. I am not familiar with the Xojo problem tracker and I missed that. I look forward to hearing if the problem is resolved in 2025R3.

1 Like
9

Can anyone tell me if the problem I described in my initial post has been corrected? If the issue is resolved that would be a strong motivation for me to upgrade to the latest Xojo version.

10

You can always download the latest version of Xojo and test using the remote debugger (or, I believe, directly on the Pi) without needing to buy a license.

By doing that, you can see if it works for your in your actual environment.

11

Yes correct you can do directly on the PI. Use the IDE on PI often :+1:

1 Like
12

My only concern is this: Will installing the latest version of Xojo to my computer (Ubuntu 24.04) in any way mess up my existing licensed version of Xojo?

13

Are you saying that I can run the Xojo development environment (IDE) on the Raspberry Pi itself? That would be news to me. I didn’t think the Xojo IDE was able to run on an ARM microprocessor.

14

@Wes_Westhaver

Yes you can :grin: I use the IDE on my PI4 all the time.
Also on Win11 ARM and Other Linux ARM distros.
Just make sure to choose correct Xojo ARM download.

15

Correct, you can test newer version and should not affect your license, you will not be able to compile if you don’t have a valid license for that version.