Update necessary for Linux Client. (Ubuntu Trusty 14.04, libmng1)

Submitted by fricigrillbufe on Wed, 04/23/2014 - 03:20
Forums: 
Soulseek General Discussion

Hi,

I have just upgraded my Ubuntu to 14.04. Unfortunately Trusty doesn't include the libmnd1 package, its no more available and was removed, therefore I don't manage to start the Linux client. I also tried to run the win client in wine (1.6.2), however I neither succeed. (Red bird icon appears in the dock, but I nothing happens on any clicks) Any suggestion or help would be welcomed. Thank you!

Submitted by fricigrillbufe on Wed, 04/23/2014 - 03:23.

And one more remark: The two Linux client files (32/64-bits) are identical. Why do you have this distinction then?

Submitted by sysmaster01 on Wed, 04/23/2014 - 12:07.

Hello fellow Ubuntu user, I'm on Saucy here. Do you happen to mean libmng1? (Multiple Image Network Graphics Library)

Submitted by fricigrillbufe on Thu, 04/24/2014 - 00:27.

Yes of course libmng1. Sorry I misspelled in the text, but its correct in the topic. Unfortunately an edit is no more available... Thanks for the correction! If you are on Saucy be careful with an upgrade :)

thescarletfire's picture

Submitted by thescarletfire on Fri, 05/02/2014 - 06:43.

Switch to Debian :)

Submitted by fricigrillbufe on Fri, 05/02/2014 - 06:51.

That was really helpful...

Otherwise here is the same issue from askubuntu and a solution form the ubuntu guys:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/453452/how-to-solve-missing-libmng-so-1-i...
already tried, works on 14.04 with some manual lib update/download. Always use libxyz:i386 architecture!

Submitted by sysmaster01 on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 19:23.

Yes, but yet that should not happen.
Thanks for the link, so I know finally what's the actual problem on 14.04.

Sometimes, in order not to break your whole system by some strange modifications, there is a much more subtle way of getting this to work:

If 14.04 really happens to ship libmng2, while SoulseekQT needs v1, it sometimes (NOT always!) works to set a symbolic link from .1 to .2, such as:

# ln -s /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libmng.so.2 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libmng.so.1

This reads: should we need libmng.so.1 for application XYZ, let's attempt to take the library functions from the newer libmng.so.2 instead (if possible).

This is WAY BETTER than downgrading the actual lib system-wide because otherwise it might break lots of Ubuntu stuff that is in current 14.04 version which needs libmng2 badly.
I would not recommend having both of them installed in parallel, but that's just me.

thescarletfire's picture

Submitted by thescarletfire on Fri, 05/02/2014 - 06:59.

Clearly it's an Ubuntu issue, glad you got it sorted.

Submitted by fricigrillbufe on Mon, 05/12/2014 - 05:57.

Hi!

I just wanted to give a feedback, that the symbolic link solution is also working. Thanks for the help! Some other libraries needs also symlink beside libmng1, so just carry on until every dependencies are satisfied. Unfortunately my Linux knowledge is not enough to be able judge whether this solution, or the other one, described in the askubuntu link is more safe, regarding the future updates of other packages and applications. So I just believed you. :)

In my personal opinion, a user friendly application should contain all the necessary binaries needed to lauch, otherwise every half year can the same issue come up at new Ubuntu/OtherLinuxDistro release. Or this would be a common software release process in the Linux world?

Submitted by sysmaster01 on Wed, 05/14/2014 - 19:26.

OK, back here after a full update to Trusty. Everything works well, but...

Basically I do agree with you: this is TOO hackish at the moment.

Also had to symlink libtiff4 to libtiff5 because 14.04 ships libtiff5.
(I would not even THINK of downgrading this, since you never know what else you will break in the process)

Nir, are you listening to us? :)

You might keep all trouble off your back by agreeing to statically link in libtiffWhatever and libmngWhatever from now on. This way your software will be distro-independent.

Submitted by Nir on Fri, 05/16/2014 - 11:31.

Yes, let me see what I can do with the Linux build over the weekend.

Submitted by Nir on Fri, 05/16/2014 - 13:53.

Are you using 64-bit Linux? If so let me know how this build works for you:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kge1rcgcbs8hmgw/SoulseekQt-2014-5-4-64bit.tar.gz

Submitted by fricigrillbufe on Tue, 05/20/2014 - 01:24.

ITS WORKING! (Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit)

Thanks a lot man! Be blessed! :)

Submitted by Nir on Tue, 05/20/2014 - 11:21.

Sweet =) I'm happy to hear that. I'll post these builds to the download page after I update with the latest translation files.

Submitted by sysmaster01 on Fri, 05/16/2014 - 17:29.

Lubuntu Trusty 14.04 (32bit)
Sorry 'bout that. =)

Submitted by Nir on Sat, 05/17/2014 - 11:26.

Here you go: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sdpdwob2rfww0mv/SoulseekQt-2014-5-4.tgz

pfrolim's picture

Submitted by pfrolim on Mon, 09/22/2014 - 07:14.

New linux user here. Started using Ubuntu 14.04 (32-bit) as main SO last week and it was a big frustation that my number one sharing music tool for like YEARS was not even starting. Luckly I searched the site and found this conversation, and this build. I'm here for a big THANK YOU, Soulseek team, and to ask if it's not time to this build go to downloads page? ;) Think about poor noobies...

Submitted by Nir on Mon, 09/22/2014 - 10:13.

Yeah... sorry about that. My regular job barely leaves me any time to breathe... I'm rolling out a new feature soon, I'll provide updated Linux binaries for that as soon as I can.

Thanks, Nir

Submitted by sysmaster01 on Sat, 05/17/2014 - 18:31.

Thanks! :)

Yes, from the library thing it works perfectly now...just...the font must have undergone a major change from some point on :-/

It's pretty unreadable and pixelly to me, and I can't seem to change it.
Tried a Dec. 2013 build and the font was perfectly readable.

Nir, did you hardcode the new font somehow inside, or can this be tweaked from user's side, too?

Submitted by Nir on Sun, 05/18/2014 - 11:28.

No... that's a well known issue with any Linux application that statically links to Qt. Used to be that Qt 4 was the standard on virtually all Linux distributions, then some distributions started using Qt 5 as the default. At that point I started linking Qt into the client executable statically to ensures it runs no matter what version of Qt the distribution uses. The downside is that the font often looks weird in that case... ScarletFire and I tried out a whole number of workarounds at the time and couldn't get anything to work.

Submitted by sysmaster01 on Sun, 05/18/2014 - 13:12.

Damn, damn...

At least thanks for the detailed explanation.
First of all, the end-of-2013 builds are indeed statically linked already, so why is there still a difference from this year's builds in respect to font choice after all?
The logic (still) escapes me, since the 2013.11.06 build (one of your best ever, I must say!!) has a crystal-clear font.

Submitted by Nir on Sun, 05/18/2014 - 16:10.

There are two possible explanations I can think of, either the older build is using a version of Qt 4 that's more compatible with your distribution, or perhaps the newest version of Qt 4 (that I'm using for this build) may be more likely (or solely likely) to introduce this problem... I seem to remember trying an older version of Qt 4 with Scarlet and it did not fix the problem.

Submitted by kmicu on Sat, 06/07/2014 - 11:10.

With a little bit of open source magic we - Linux users - could manage Linux builds.
Now, we are like a second class citizens.
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/soulseekqt/ packages lags behind Windows/Mac versions and we must wait, even If we could improve and build SoulseekQt by ourselves.
Do you have any plans to fix this in the near future?
If not I will dive into another Soulseek client which is not so hostile in this topic.
PS
What about some security audit? Can you allow some users to audit SoulseekQT's code?

Submitted by africantreebass on Sun, 09/07/2014 - 18:36.

please update linux client. Looks ugly in ubuntu. Thanks

mezuss's picture

Submitted by mezuss on Mon, 09/15/2014 - 23:27.

Thank you very much for that new [32bit] build you linked to from dropbox. I tried that when I jumped to lubuntu 14.04 for a moment - and it worked great. I am now successfuly using it after downgrade to xubuntu 12.04 lts.

Could you perhaps add that version as alternative option to the main download page ?

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BTW I have never had any problems with fonts in Slsk on linux. If there were any font problems it was always either my damn amd vga or funny font settings. SlskQT look is nowadays very easy to customise compared to old Slsk days.