Bug 465413 - media controller doesn't show
Summary: media controller doesn't show
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: kasts
Classification: Applications
Component: general (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: 23.01.0
Platform: Arch Linux Linux
: NOR minor
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: bart
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2023-02-07 10:12 UTC by lucid illusions
Modified: 2023-02-27 07:02 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:


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Description lucid illusions 2023-02-07 10:12:19 UTC
SUMMARY
***
Media Controller on system tray doesn't appear when kasts is playing, expected result was to be able to control it on different virtual world while kasts is minimized and kept.


SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Arch Linux x86_64 / 5.15.91-4-lts
Linux/KDE Plasma: 
(available in About System)
KDE Plasma Version: 5.26.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.102.0
Qt Version: 5.15.8

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Comment 1 bart 2023-02-09 07:57:27 UTC
I'm afraid that this is a bug with the plasma media controller app.  Kasts does implement MPRIS2, and it works with all other media controllers (including e.g. kde-connect).  I'll see if I can reassign this bug to the right category
Comment 2 bart 2023-02-21 20:43:42 UTC
There were some improvements in the media controller applet in plasma 5.27. I don't seem to have the problem anymore myself since upgrading. If you can upgrade, can you check whether it's also solved in plasma 5.27 for you?
Comment 3 lucid illusions 2023-02-24 07:10:34 UTC
(In reply to bart from comment #2)
> There were some improvements in the media controller applet in plasma 5.27.
> I don't seem to have the problem anymore myself since upgrading. If you can
> upgrade, can you check whether it's also solved in plasma 5.27 for you?

Interestingly, if I start Kasts - I don't see the controller, but if I start anything else in parallel say YouTube -- then I can actually see Kasts and control it as well.

If I were to close Kasts and start again 
a. if YouTube tab is still there, then Kasts appears on media player controller
b. if no other media player is running, Kasts doesn't trigger the media player controller. 

Device details.
OS: Arch Linux x86_64 
Kernel: 6.1.12-1-lts
DE: Plasma 5.27.1 
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.103.0
Comment 4 bart 2023-02-24 10:17:45 UTC
Let's see, there might be a few different things going on here.

The current intended behaviour of the media applet is that:
- it will only appear if a mpris2 player is sending a command saying that it's in the played or paused state.  It will not appear if a player is in stopped state.  This is a choice that was made to avoid that the media applet is there all the time.
- once the applet is showing, it will show the state of all players with mpris2 capabilities.
- I can reproduce this behaviour on my side (at least with plasma 5.27; older plasma versions had known problems).  If I start up Kasts, it will not show the applet, but it will show up once Kasts starts playback.  If another app is already playing, then Kasts shows up immediately on startup.  So that reflects your experience, and is actually the intended behaviour of the applet as I've understood it.

Maybe you've already tried this, but what happens if you start Kasts and then start playback?  Does it show up then?
Comment 5 lucid illusions 2023-02-24 10:44:28 UTC
Hey Bart,

Yeah, like you mentioned - that works, but if I start Kasts, and then play anything, it doesn't show on my controller. 

Works fine, if something else was playing, or something else is started -- and once the other things stop, Kasts persists in the controller.
Comment 6 bart 2023-02-24 12:00:38 UTC
Ok, thanks for elaborating.  That indeed doesn't sound like the expected behaviour.

There's one thing that I found in the code a while ago that I changed in the startup of the audio controller that might have an impact on the mpris2 registration.  That change is on the master branch but has not been released yet.

Since you're running archlinux, I assume that you built the package from the AUR?  Could you perhaps try the `kasts-git` package (that will build from the master branch), and check and see if the problem is solved with that version? (You can safely go back to the stable package later on.)
An alternative to that would be to check the nightly flatpak build from binary-factory.kde.org.  That one is also built from the master branch.
Comment 7 lucid illusions 2023-02-27 06:51:13 UTC
Trying this - 

$ yay kasts-git
1 aur/kasts-git 22.06.r12.gfbe745d-1 (+2 0.00) (Out-of-date: 2022-12-13) 
    Kirigami-based podcast player
==> Packages to install (eg: 1 2 3, 1-3 or ^4)
~
looking for conflicting packages...
:: kasts-git and kasts are in conflict. Remove kasts? [y/N] y

Packages (2) kasts-23.01.0-1 [removal]  kasts-git-23.01.0.r57.g7a03b212-1
~
:: Processing package changes...
(1/1) removing kasts                                               [-------------------------------------] 100%
(1/1) installing kasts-git                                         [-------------------------------------] 100%
===============


(Not sure why I felt the above might help or something) 

But I've installed git version, and looks like it is able to trigger the controller as expected - when I start the app and hit play... I will definitely try it a few more times after restart and if something seems to be off will be happy to report! 

Thank you so much :) 

p.s. are there any future plans of having cast running in background when closed or any widget i can add to a panel? 
(sorry if it seems too much to ask, thanks again for Kasts, and helping me with the Media controller)
Comment 8 bart 2023-02-27 07:02:45 UTC
(In reply to lucid illusions from comment #7)
> But I've installed git version, and looks like it is able to trigger the
> controller as expected - when I start the app and hit play... I will
> definitely try it a few more times after restart and if something seems to
> be off will be happy to report! 

Thanks for checking.  That kind of confirms my suspicion that the issue might have been caused by the startup of the audioplayer (which was fixed on git master).

> p.s. are there any future plans of having cast running in background when
> closed or any widget i can add to a panel? 

Well, now that you're on the git version of Kasts, you should already have that functionality available: check "Enable system tray icon" and "Close to system tray" in the general settings. :)

> (sorry if it seems too much to ask, thanks again for Kasts, and helping me
> with the Media controller)

Thank *you* for reporting and testing!
I'll close the bug report now.  Feel free to reopen if you see a re-occurance of this problem.