mollusk
09a07f5303
build-appimage.sh produces pixelpass-<version>-x86_64.AppImage via linuxdeploy. PixelPass links almost nothing (only libpipewire, which is excludelisted) and shells out to gst-launch-1.0/pactl/a player on the host PATH, while its GUI graphics libs are dlopen'd and also excludelisted — so the AppImage bundles just the binary, AppRun, desktop entry, and icon (~13 MB, zero bundled libs). The no-sandbox model lets the bundled binary spawn the host's tools, which is why AppImage fits this orchestrator better than Flatpak. AppRun opens --gui when launched with no args and no controlling terminal (file manager / .desktop), and passes through otherwise so the CLI, interactive menu, and viewer all work. README documents the host-deps contract + the glibc-baseline and VAAPI caveats. Verified: builds to 13 MB; --version/--help work; the GUI launches cleanly on a live Wayland session via both --gui and the no-tty AppRun path. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
1.9 KiB
PixelPass AppImage
A "thin" AppImage: the gui-enabled pixelpass binary, a launcher (AppRun),
and the desktop entry + icon. Run ./build-appimage.sh to produce
pixelpass-<version>-x86_64.AppImage.
Why thin
pixelpass is an orchestrator — it links almost nothing (only libpipewire,
which is excludelisted because it must match the host daemon) and instead
shells out to gst-launch-1.0, pactl, and a player (mpv/vlc) found on
the host PATH. The GUI's graphics libraries (libGL, libwayland-*,
libxkbcommon, X11) are dlopen'd at runtime and are likewise on the AppImage
excludelist — every desktop already has a matching set. So there is nothing
useful to bundle, and bundling the graphics stack would only risk driver
mismatches. The AppImage therefore carries just the binary.
This also explains why PixelPass suits AppImage better than Flatpak: the
no-sandbox model lets the bundled binary freely spawn the host's gst-launch,
pactl, and player, which a Flatpak sandbox would block.
Host requirements
The AppImage runs on any reasonably current glibc-based distro that has:
- GStreamer + plugins —
gst-launch-1.0/gst-inspect-1.0plus base, good/bad/ugly, libav, and the PipeWire plugin (the binary tells you the exact package names for your distro if something is missing). - PipeWire (with the PulseAudio shim, for
pactl). - A player —
mpv(preferred) orvlc— for the viewer side. - For X11 single-window capture:
xwininfo.
These are the same dependencies the Arch package lists; the AppImage just spares you the Rust toolchain.
Caveats
- Built on a bleeding-edge glibc (CachyOS), so the AppImage requires a host glibc at least that new. For broad compatibility, rebuild on an older base.
- Hardware encode (VAAPI
vah264enc) uses the host GPU driver; it can't be bundled. The software path (--no-hwencode, x264) always works.