morgan/UxPlay
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/morgan9e/UxPlay synced 2026-04-14 00:04:13 +09:00
Code Issues Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

README update for v1.73.5

Browse Source
This commit is contained in:
F. Duncanh
2026-03-19 03:49:29 -04:00
parent 6d0ff39bf7
commit 3d71c13136
3 changed files with 291 additions and 173 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

105
README.md
View File

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
### **Now developed at the GitHub site <https://github.com/FDH2/UxPlay> (where ALL user issues should be posted, and latest versions can be found).**
- **NEW in v1.73** (January 2026):
- **NEW in v1.73, up to v1.73.5** (March 2026):
- Some YouTube app HLS videos now offer alternative language tracks (generated by AI dubbing). Language choices will be made in order of
preferences set with option -lang (or by environment variable $LANGUAGE, which "-lang" overrides). Format is `-lang fr:es:en`, where French ("fr") is
@@ -12,13 +12,12 @@
- Support for recording Mirror-mode/Audio-mode (but not HLS) Audio and Video to mp4 file (new option -mp4 [fn]).
- Support for **service discovery using a Bluetooth LE "beacon"** for both Linux/\*BSD and Windows (as an alternative to Bonjour/Rendezvous DNS-SD
service discovery). **This can be used on networks that do not allow the user to run a DNS_SD service.** The user must run a Bluetooth LE "beacon", (a USB 4.0 or
later "dongle" can be used). The beacon is managed by a Python3 script `uxplay-beacon.py`: four implementations of Bleutooth LE advertising are available
as loadable modules: BlueZ for Linux only, winrt for Windows only, BleuIO
for the BlueIO usb-serial dongle (which has its own BlueTooth-LE stack, independent of that of the
host system) that runs on all systems including macOS and *BSD), and a low-level HCI module (Linux and BSD only) that
access the Host Contoller Interface (but users need enhanced privileges to use this). The beacon
runs independently of UxPlay: while UxPlay is running, it regularly broadcasts a Bluetooth LE ("Low Energy") 46 byte
service discovery) was introduced in v1.73 and improved in 1.73.5. This can be used on networks that do not allow the user to run a DNS_SD service.**
The user must run a Bluetooth LE "beacon", (Bluetooth 4.0 or later is needed, a cheap USD "dongle" will do.). The
beacon is managed by a Python >= 3.6 script `uxplay-beacon.py`. Loadable Python modules provide appropriate Bluetooth LE support for Linux, Windows,
and FreeBSD; _macOS is only supported by the BleuIO USB dongle which uniquely has its own Bluetooth LE stack based on a Renesas SoC, and is seen by the
host as a serial modem (this can be used on all the operating systems supported by Uxplay, including other BSD variants)._ The beacon runs independently
of UxPlay. While UxPlay is running, the beacon regularly broadcasts a Bluetooth LE ("Low Energy") 46 byte
legacy-type advertisement informing nearby iOS/macOS devices of
the local IPv4 network address of the UxPlay server, and which TCP port to contact UxPlay on. Instructions
are [given below](#bluetooth-le-beacon-setup).
@@ -1560,29 +1559,44 @@ GStreamer inner workings.
# Bluetooth LE beacon setup
The python>=3.6 script for running a Bluetooth LE Service Discovery beacon is uxplay-beacon.py.
It provides four possible Bluetooth LE implementations (loaded as modules): one for Linux systems with D-Bus,
one for Windows, and one for the [BleuIO (or BleuIO Pro) USB
dongle](https://www.bleuio.com) with its own on-board Bluetooth-LE Stack that
does not use the host operating system Bluetooth (the Host sees the device as a USB serial modem). This is needed for macOS where the
operating system does not allow users to send Bluetooth-LE advertisements of the type we require. If a BleuIO dongle is
available, the bleuio version of the python script
can be used on many operating systems including macOS, Windows and Linux, and perhaps *BSD (not tested):
it requires python library `python3-pyserial` to be installed.
It provides four possible Bluetooth LE implementations (loaded as modules):
A fourth implementation (module HCI) for Linux or FreeBSD (maybe other BSD's too?) requires elevated permissions to access the Host
Controller Interface. These are granted by adding users to a new group "hciusers" that are give permission to
call "`sudo -n hcitool/hciconfig/hccontrol`" without entering a password: this can be configured by the system admistrator
using visudo, but has security implications.
* **BlueZ** for Linux systems with D-Bus;
* **winrt** for Windows;
* **BleuIO** for the [BleuIO (or BleuIO Pro) USB dongle](https://www.bleuio.com) with its own on-board Bluetooth-LE Stack that
does not use the host operating system Bluetooth (the host sees the device as a USB serial modem). This is needed for macOS where the
native operating system Bluetooth stack does not allow users to send Bluetooth-LE advertising data
of the "manufacturer-specific" type `AdvData=0xFF`. If a BleuIO dongle (currently costs about USD25) is
available, the BleuIO version of the python script can be used on many operating systems including macOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD,
and probably other BSD variants (not tested): it requires python library `python3-pyserial` to be installed. On Linux, users must be members of
group `dialout` or sometimes ``uucp`` (```dialer``` on FreeBSD).
* **HCI** for Linux without D-Bus (uses utiities `hcitool` and ``hciconfig``) or FreeBSD (uses
`hccontrol`) and requires elevated privileges to access the Host Controller Interface. These privileges can be granted by adding users
to a new group "hciusers" that are given permission to call "`sudo -n hci*`" (``hci*`` = hcitool, hciconfig or hccontrol) without entering a password:
this can be configured by the system administrator using `visudo` (_security implications should be considered_). Use visudo to create a file `hciusers`
in `/etc/sudoers.d/` (Linux)
or `/usr/local/etc/sudoers.d` (FreeBSD), containing the
line "`%hciusers ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: <hcitools>`" (where ``<hcitools>`` is replaced
by "`/usr/bin/hcitool, /usr/bin/hciconfig`" (Linux) or "``/usr/sbin/hccontrol``" (FreeBSD). In
addition, FreeBSD's `hccontrol` needs a patch to allow generic LE Advertising Data to be input. We have submitted it to FreeBSD as a Pull Request,
and you can find it on the [UxPlay Wiki] (https://github.com/FDH2/UxPlay/wiki/hccontrol-patch-for-FreeBSD-15.0)
On Linux, Bluetooth support (using the official Linux Bluetooth stack BlueZ, and D-Bus) must be installed (on Debian-based systems: `sudo apt install bluez bluez-tools`;
recent Ubuntu releases provide bluez as a snap package). BlueZ tools 'hcitool' and 'hciconfig' (needed if you use the HCI module
on Linux) are declared "deprecated" by the BlueZ developers: some Linux distributions
have removed them from the default BleuZ packages, into "extra" packages with names like "bluez-deprecated".
On Linux, Bluetooth support (using the offical Linux Bluetooth stack BlueZ) must be installed (on Debian-based systems: `sudo apt install bluez bluez-tools`;
recent Ubuntu releases provide bluez as a snap package).
In addition to standard Python3 libraries, you may need to install the gi, dbus, and psutil Python libraries used by
uxplay-beacon.py. On Debian-based systems:
```
sudo apt install python3-gi python3-dbus python3-psutil
```
If a python3-gi package is not found, install the python3-gobject package which provides it.
If a python3-gi package is available in your Linux distribution, install the python3-gobject package which provides it.
For Windows support in the MSYS2 UCRT64 environment, use pacman -S to
install `mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-python`, ``*-python-gobject``,
@@ -1601,11 +1615,11 @@ For python >= 3.11, the pip commands on "externally-managed" python installation
pip install .... --break-system-packages
```
The option `--break-system-packages` was required to make users hesitate before
The option `--break-system-packages` was added as a requirement to make users hesitate before
adding packages not provided by the "external management":
_this is unnecessarily scary, as in the case of the winrt packages, no breakage will occur_.
_this is unnecessarily scary, as in the case of the winrt packages, no breakage can occur_.
If uxplay will be run with option "`uxplay -ble`" (so it writes data for the Bluetooth beacon in the default BLE
UxPlay must be run with option "`uxplay -ble`" (so it writes data for the Bluetooth beacon in the default BLE
data file `~/.uxplay.ble`), just run ``uxplay-beacon.py`` in a separate terminal. The python script will start
Bluetooth LE Service-Discovery advertising when it detects that UxPlay is running by checking if the BLE data file exists, and stop when it no longer detects
a running UxPlay plus this file (it will restart advertising if UxPlay later reappears). The script will remain active until stopped with Ctrl+C in its
@@ -1619,6 +1633,9 @@ options. Get help with `man uxplay-beacon` or ``uxplay-beacon.py --help``.
Options are
* ```<module>``` where "module" is BleuIO or HCI (no intital ``--``) . Without this option, the default module used will be **BlueZ** (Linux), **winrt** (Windows), **BleuIO** (all other operating systems).
* `--file <config file>` read beacon options from ``<config file>`` instead of
`~/.uxplay.beacon`.
@@ -1628,22 +1645,36 @@ it is not given, an address will be obtained automatically (specify the address
* `--path <BLE data file>`. This overrides the default choice of BLE data file (``~/.uxplay.ble``) that is monitored by the beacon script. This also requires
that uxplay is run with option "`uxplay -ble <BLE data file>`".
The BlueZ/Dbus version has three more options not offered by the Windows version (the Windows operating system chooses their values):
These are the only options accepted by the **winrt** module on Windows. The other modules accept
* `--advmin x`, ``--advmax y``. These controls the interval between BLE advertisement broadcasts. This interval is in the range
[x, y], given in units of msecs. Allowed ranges are 100 <= x <= y <= 10240. If advmin=advmax, the interval is fixed: if advmin < advmax
it is chosen flexibly in this range to avoid interfering with other tasks the Bluetooth device is carrying out. The default values are
advmin = advmax = 100. The advertisement is broadcast on all three Bluetooth LE advertising channels: 37,38,39.
On a Windows system, the values of these paramaters are set by the operating system, and cannot be set by users.
The **BlueZ** module (Linux) also accepts
* `--index x` (default x = 0, x >= 0). This can be used by the DBus to distinguish between multiple simultaneous instances of uxplay-beacon.py that
are running to support multiple instances of UxPlay. Each instance must have its own BLE Data
file (just as each instance of UxPlay must also have its own MAC address and ports). _Note: running multiple beacons simultaneously
on the same host has not been tested, and this option might not be useful or needed._
While the native macOS and \*BSD Bluetooth stacks
do not allow unpriviledged users to send "manufacturer-specific" advertisements like the uxplay service discovery
announcement, this can be achieved using the BleuIO USB device: the BleuIO module for uxplay-beacon.py is installed with UxPlay
in all operating systems, including macos and *BSD, while the BlueZ and winrt modules are only installed on Linux and Windows, respectively.
The **BleuIO** and **HCI** modules accept
* `--device x` which allows overiding automatically-made choices of serial ports (**BleuIO**) or hci device nodes (**HCI**). This
is probably only useful if the host system has multiple devices that could be used.
The native macOS Bluetooth stack has no documented way for users to send "manufacturer-specific" Bluetooth LE advertisements (such
that sent for AirPlay Service Discovery), and the only support of uxplay-beacon.py on macOS uses a BleuIO USB serial device.
However macOS provides a low-level utility BlueTool (found at `/usr/sbin/bluetool`) that can send HCI commands, so
possibly could be used to adapt the python3 **HCI** module to support macOS as well (_working implementations welcome!_).
__The recommended and working method on macOS is to use a BleuIO dongle.__
If you wish to test Bluetooth LE Service Discovery on Linux/*BSD, you can disable DNS_SD Service discovery by the avahi-daemon with
@@ -1658,11 +1689,8 @@ On Windows, the Bonjour Service is controlled using **Services Management**: pr
run `services.msc`, and click on **Bonjour Service** in the alphabetic list. This
will show links for it to be stopped and restarted.
For more information, see the [wiki page](https://github.com/FDH2/UxPlay/wiki/Bluetooth_LE_beacon). This page also explains how to setup a BLE
beacon for UxPlay on Linux by direct accesss to the Bluetooth stack using `hcitool` to send low-level HCI commands, with root privileges.
This can also be done on FreeBSD using `hccontrol`, and on macOS using ``bluetool``. **The recommended way to set up Bluetooth LE
Service Discovery on macOS or \*BSD is to acquire a BleuIO USB device, which is supported by uxplay-beacon.py without
root privileges**.
For more information on Bluetooth LE support, including HCI commands, see the [wiki page](https://github.com/FDH2/UxPlay/wiki/Bluetooth_LE_beacon).
* **Note that Bluetooth LE AirPlay Service Discovery only supports
@@ -1702,7 +1730,10 @@ start, stop, status. You might need to edit the avahi-daemon.conf file
"disable-publishing" is **not** a selected option). Some systems may
instead use the mdnsd daemon as an alternative to provide DNS-SD
service. (FreeBSD offers both alternatives, but only Avahi was tested;
see [here](https://gist.github.com/reidransom/6033227).)
see [here](https://gist.github.com/reidransom/6033227),
or [section 32.8.1 of the FreeBSD Handbook](https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/network-servers/#_configuring_and_starting_avahi))
Note that avahi service is not needed if you instead use a Bluetooth LE beacon (see [above](#bluetooth-le-beacon-setup)) for Service-Discovery.
- **uxplay starts, but either stalls or stops after "Initialized
server socket(s)" appears (*without the server name showing on the