Auto-connection request for VLC (avahi-control)

store-requests
1

Hi.

We have a nice feature in VLC allowing user to stream the movies/music tracks to a Chromecast nearby, with autodetection of such device via avahi.
Since I’m mostly using Debian, it always worked for me, but apparently on Ubuntu it needs an additional plug, as reported on https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/24657 and

Please auto-enable the avahi-control interface on the VLC installed from the store. Currently, beta and edge have it in the snapcraft.yaml, while candidate/stable will have it on the next release.

Thanks,

3 Likes
2

For some additional context, this relates to the thread I posted here recently.

3

Is avahi-control strictly necessary to observe other devices? Can the avahi-observe interface be used instead?

4

i think if you actively want to send search queries you actually need avahi-control

5

Well from the linked thread VLC Snap does not support Chromecast the suggestion from snappy-debug was to add avahi-control, however the Ping method is provided as part of avahi-observe (and this was the denial seen in that thread) so I suspect that this may be sufficient and that snappy-debug is being a bit over zealous. So I would be keen to know if avahi-observe is sufficient in this case.

6

@thresh this request is waiting on your feedback. Can you please confirm whether avahi-observe is sufficient for this functionality?

7

@thresh - this request cannot proceed without the requested information.

8

Thanks and sorry for the late reply. I dont have a physical ubuntu machine to test that properly at the moment. It would be appreciated if someone could check that.

9

I have confirmed that chromecast functionality of vlc works with just avahi-observe connected. (FYI - for anyone needing to do something you have to change what plugs the snap is requesting in the snap.yaml within the snap):

snap download vlc
unsquashfs vlc_*.snap
sed -i s/avahi-control/avahi-observe/ squashfs-root/meta/snap.yaml
snap try squashfs-root
snap connect vlc:avahi-observe

And then exercise the chromecast functionality (choose a device: Playback → Renderer → (Device)) - and then open a video and watch it via said device :slight_smile:

As such, +1 from me for auto-connect of avahi-observe for vlc (-1 for avahi-control as this is not needed and is over-reach)

1 Like
10

+1 for auto-connecting avahi-abserve, -1 for avahi-control.

2 votes for, 0 against for avahi-observe. Granting auto-connection, this is now live.

0 votes for, 2 against for avahi-control. Not granting auto-connection.