Where is the VLC app?

VLC is still not available. When will the build be fixed?

VLC is still not available. When will the build be fixed?

Hopefully when Make VLC 2.0.6 build again (!2242) · Merge requests · F-Droid / Data · GitLab
is ready to be merged.

fyi: 2.0.6 was built successfully, but the build recipe is not really
maintainable. we will see, if we can get it cleaned up and build a
recent version with it.

ref: https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.videolan.vlc/lastbuild

Are there any news yet?

2.0.6. should be in the archive. I have a locally somewhat cleaned
build that I hope to upgrade to a newer version when I find the time.

See also/Related:

We need to be able to easily support specific base configs for apps like VLC and Barcode Scanner that require very specific things. Having sudo= as a build option will go a long way, but we could other things too:
add new sudo= build field for per-build buildserver customization (#317) · Issues · F-Droid / fdroidserver · GitLab

This page says your last working version is 2.0.6,
The latest version on both GPlay and their official site is v. 2.0.6 .
So what’s preventing you to not include VLC in Fdroid?

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VLC for Android is an absolute nightmare to build, and to keep building. Various people including @anon25111075, @mimi89999, @relan, and I have contributed quite a bit of work. We’ve also tried to talk to upstream about streamlining some of the things, but they have been pretty hostile to our feedback.

There is work to package 2.1.x, you can see the latest build failures here:
https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.videolan.vlc/lastbuild

If I want to help you to build vlc. What do i need to have the same build setup and the same workflow as you use?

1 Like

We’d love help! At the very least, you’ll need a machine with the
Android SDK and this:

To have the exact same environment, you’ll need this:

It still does not make sense v2.0.6 was available on F-droid it is the official version distribute by VLC developers why is it not available on f-droid because we can’t build the newer version which seems beta or Alpha since it is not distributed by the devs?

Stay with stable versions

I’m thinking of helping out by trying to build VLC… but what requires the fdroid team to build it anyway? Are there proprietary bits that need to be omitted? There’s a message on the videolan wiki saying “Warning: Please, do not put pre-release test binaries or git-compiles on software sites or on user-forums. We’ve had bad experiences with this before and we do not appreciate it.” source

EDIT: Nevermind, I read the Building Applications link. :slight_smile:

Did you just avoid my question? :neutral_face:

Check this article to compile for Android
https://wiki.videolan.org/AndroidCompile/

@weasel I think those who have worked on the VLC builds are all burnt out from the amazing shittiness of that build system, and from all the related grumpy comments. So no one is currently tracking it that closely. It needs some fresh eyes working on it.

Ok I’ll repeat my question for the last time, since nobody got my point.
That page I linked above says that you already have VLC 2.0.6 working.
VLC on GooglePlayStore is v 2.0.6 .
VLC on the official website is 2.0.6 .
The question here is not why the later developing versions can’t build, I don’t care. What I ask is why you don’t make v 2.0.6 available on Fdroid?
Thank you

Because it’s difficult to build.
Fdroid team is not the team behind VLC development.
Why don’t you grab a dev of VLC and ask him to come on this forum to help Fdroid team?

The question here is not why the later developing versions can’t build, I don’t care. What I ask is why you don’t make v 2.0.6 available on Fdroid?

Upstream does not want us to distribute outdated versions: https://twitter.com/videolan/status/748448942141091840

Check this article to compile for Android

VLC build instructions look simple and straightforward until you start following them. Even minor differences in build environment can cause issues (like automake 1.15 vs 1.15.1).

Sometimes they forget to update their source code.

For example, VLC 2.5.2 requires libvlc to be built from commit 1c02164. But the version they distribute was built with libvlc from ef7c26f5a7 (you can get this from logcat, grep “core libvlc: revision”). BTW, this mismatch can be the reason why F-Droid’s VLC 2.5.2 crashes.

Official 2.5.3 uses libvlc built from cbfa98bd98, which has not been published at all.

Hopefully those examples explain why we cannot build VLC.