Xpra: Ticket #737: xpra on Raspberry Pi

First time user of xpra - tried it out on a Raspberry Pi (installed via the usual "apt-get install xpra"). A couple of issues (one an annoyance, the other a show-stopper):

  1. I decided to test it in the most basic way, that is, all local, no ssh.

I did: xpra start :7 --start-child=xterm So far, so good. Then I do: xpra attach :7 and this fails - seems to do stuff, then eventually says "Connection lost".

However, if I do: xpra attach it works correctly. I.e., it doesn't work with the :7 option specified.

  1. It is very, very slow. When I have the xterm up and running, it seems like I am typing on a 110 baud modem. Is this a problem specific to the Raspberry pi?

Version is:

$ xpra --version
xpra v0.3.11


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:10:59 GMT - Antoine Martin: status, description changed; resolution set

Don't use a broken and outdated version for a start. This is covered in the FAQ and wiki/Packaging

The rpi is no speed king and we can't use the hardware h264 decoder, but it works fine as long as you use a good version.


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 17:49:32 GMT - joeschmoe: status, type changed; resolution deleted

OK - thanks for that.

So, the bottom line is: Don't use versions obtained from anywhere other than this board/site.

Well, I spent some time wandering around the site, reading FAQs, etc and didn't find anything that looked directly usable. How do I download a .DEB file that I can use directly on a Debian or Debian-like system?


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 17:54:43 GMT - Antoine Martin: status changed; resolution set

So, the bottom line is: Don't use versions obtained from anywhere other than this board/site.


Not necessarily, we're quite happy to point users to other sources, as long as they're kept reasonably up to date with bug fixes and security issues.

We don't have DEB packages for rpi for example, so we would gladly refer to some other source for those. The easiest option would probably be to install from source - that's what I did on my rpi.

It shouldn't be too hard to setup a crossbuild environment, or even a KVM instance for rpi - but I just don't have the time for it, sorry. (so I am closing this ticket again)


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 20:53:56 GMT - joeschmoe: status changed; resolution deleted

OK - so progress is being made.

As far as I can tell, to get this to work, I have to do 3 things:

1) apt-get install a whole bunch of stuff 2) Download {something} from this site/board. 3) Run: ./setup.py install --home=./install

And then I will get an executable file "xpra" somewhere under ~/install", right?

The only thing I don't understand is #2. What exactly do I download? As I've said, I spent a lot of time looking around, but there doesn't seem to be any specific file that screams out "Download Me!". I managed to figure out that 1.14 is the latest/current version, but it is not at all clear which file you need to download to get that.


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 21:39:36 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Download {something} from this site/board.


Download the wiki/Source

And then I will get an executable file "xpra" somewhere under ~/install", right?


Yes. Something like:

PYTHONPATH=~/install/lib64/python/ ~/install/bin/xpra ..


I managed to figure out that 1.14 is the latest/current version


0.14

but it is not at all clear which file you need to download to get that.


Really? Just like any other project: download the source!?


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:43:46 GMT - joeschmoe:

OK - still making progress. Slow going, but I think we're getting there.

Is this the (only!) file that I need to download: browser/xpra/tags/v0.14.x/src/setup.py

I note that it is only 80K size. Is it a network type install? Does it require a network connection to do the installation?


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:44:43 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Err, download the xpra source. The whole source for the version you want to install!


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:54:33 GMT - joeschmoe:

"Err, download the xpra source. The whole source for the version you want to install!"

URL, please?

Thank you.


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 22:55:48 GMT - Antoine Martin:

See comment:3 and comment:5, http://xpra.org/src/


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 23:02:15 GMT - joeschmoe:

Still hoping for a URL.

Seriously, guys, is this really this hard?

What file or files constitutes "the source" ?

Am I looking for a .tar.gz file? A .bz2 file? A .py file? One file? A bunch of files?


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 23:08:11 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Seriously, guys, is this really this hard?


No it isn't. Is this the first time you build something from source?

The xpra source is available in tar files with various compression options (iirc: bz2, xz), or via svn. If you cannot figure out from there, I cannot help you.


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 23:19:37 GMT - joeschmoe: status changed; resolution set

Well, for the benefit of anyone else who may be watching and enjoying this little circus, the answer to the question is (are you waiting for it???):

https://www.xpra.org/src/xpra-0.14.11.tar.xz


Thu, 20 Nov 2014 23:23:47 GMT - Antoine Martin:

Sort of.

I didn't put the link, because within a few hours it will be outdated. And by putting a link here, you make it more likely that people will grab the wrong version.

If you cannot find the xpra source given the instructions on the wiki, your chances of being able to compile it from source are very slim.


Sat, 22 Nov 2014 01:09:55 GMT - joeschmoe: status changed; resolution deleted

If you cannot find the xpra source given the instructions on the wiki, your chances of being able to compile it from source are very slim.

Well, ya got that right. Whether that reflects badly on me or you will be for a jury to decide.

But let me just say that this ain't my first time at the rodeo, and I've been doing this stuff for a couple of decades now, but rarely have I seen such a freakin' spiral maze of twisty passages as this one. Given how hard it is to build, I'm not surprised that the versions shipped with most of the popular Linux distros are out-of-date and/or broken. Keeping current is just too much work for the repo maintainers.

Don't get me wrong - I'd still like to get this working - but I had no idea it would be this complex. In the category of "for what it is worth", I got to the point of running "setup.py" and it said that my version of Cython was too old (I have 0.15.1 - apparently, 0.19 is needed. The current version is 0.21.1) I found and downloaded "Cython-0.21.1.tar.gz", but, man, that looks like a rabbit hole I'd rather not go down… Again, one has to ask, why are the repos so out of date in this general area?


Sat, 22 Nov 2014 02:00:14 GMT - Antoine Martin: status changed; resolution set

rarely have I seen such a freakin' spiral maze


You must be joking!

Given how hard it is to build, I'm not surprised that the versions shipped with most of the popular Linux distros are out-of-date and/or broken. Keeping current is just too much work for the repo maintainers.


Building is not hard at all and is fully documented, you struggled to identify the source tar file - that's not building things. I happen to talk to the packagers for various distros, including Debian, so I know that this is not the issue at all.

FWIW: 99% of open source projects use the format $WEBSITE/$DOWNLOADAREA/$PROJECTNAME.tar.[xz|bz2|gz|zip], so much so that distributions have tools for monitoring those download areas and getting notified when new versions are available.

..that my version of Cython was too old..


That's because it is.

I found and downloaded "Cython-0.21.1.tar.gz", but, man, that looks like a rabbit hole


Like I said, if you struggle to identify source archives, you should probably use ready made packages instead. Even if you had managed to build Cython, then you would have hit the Debian libav issues which require patching (also provided).

why are the repos so out of date in this general area?


Because you are using an outdated distro.

I am closing this ticket, again. Please don't re-open this without a valid question. Simple questions like this one could be answered by dozens of people on IRC, usually within minutes.


Sat, 23 Jan 2021 05:04:29 GMT - migration script:

this ticket has been moved to: https://github.com/Xpra-org/xpra/issues/737