OpenSong on Linux

If you’re using OpenSong on Linux please consider adding useful links or making an edit to add tips or information that will help other users of OpenSong.

Note that the syntax in this wiki differs from wikipedia (et al.).

— this page started by pbhj 2007/10/07 23:35, I’m not an OpenSong coder just an eager user

Version 1.2.0
Version 1.2.0 (link to sourceforge download) is available as a “tgz” file. This has been confirmed to work on the Ubuntu based Kubuntu “Edgy Eft” 6.10 and “Feisty Fawn” 7.04.

A guide to installing both Kubuntu and OpenSong (by compilation and from tarball) is available. At the time of writing information there has been used to enable xinerama and have “single screen” presentation mode used across two physical displays.

Version 1.5.1
Version 1.5.1 (link to sourceforge download) is a .deb file and works well with Ubuntu 9.04. Installs just like any other .deb file.

The dual screen option (control panel on laptop and presentation on 2nd screen) does work, It can take a bit of playing with Ubuntu’s screen manager to get it to recognize it. (See tips below).

The single screen on 2 displays works, under ubuntu with the 2nd monitor enabled and mirror checked.

The only real issue we have with the Linux version at this time is the background images for each slide using “override style” This can be worked around by using the “change style” / “revert style”. Our testing has been on a Dell Latitude Laptop.

Version 1.5.1 Ubuntu Dual Screen display
We could move the mouse across to the second screen but Opensong would not see the second screen. We noticed that the desktop switcher icon at the bottom of the screen was still narrow like a single monitor. Ubuntu’s display manager showed both screens as active and extended.

After some playing we noticed if we simply changed the resolution to something else, (800×600) and then back to native (1024×768) The system would finally enlighten itself to the fact it had 2 monitors extended dsktop. At this point the desktop changer icon at the bottom left shows wider desktops, and now OpenSong recognized the dual monitor option.

If the application tool bars and icons are on your projector instead of your laptop. Open display manager and drag the laptop screen to the left of the 2nd screen and hit apply.

This was for the PCLinuxos Gnome 2008 distro. http://www.getpclinuxos.com/GNOME/ I make no assertion that it will be as straightforward for other PCLinuxos derivatives. It may be the gnome specific files that made the install easy. Or it may just be as easy on all versions of PCLinuxos 2007 [and up]. http://www.pclinuxos.com/

Downloaded the OpenSongLinux-V1.2.tgz and opened it in Krusader. Copied the entire folder structure in the tarball to my /home/[username]/ folder. Executed the ‘opensong’ file.

Initial error message; clicked ok [which exited the program].

Executed ‘opensong’ file again. This time it wanted to know where to store the opensong [user] settings. It suggested a folder under /home/[username]/Documents. So I then created a sub-folder called ‘opensong’. The program continued its setup properly. Exit the program.

(Opensong creates a “.OpenSong” folder in your /home/[username]/ folder where it stores its preferences in a file called preferences.plist)

I copied sets and songs and scriptures across from my windows partition to the appropriate subfolders under /home/[username]/Documents/opensong/, executed ‘opensong’ again and it now works properly.

To get it to recognise the added scripture file [which I copied across before (added NIV translation)], all I had to do is create a new set with a scripture, then choose the NIV version, at which stage opensong creates an index for that version.

I have seen the dual screen option but haven’t tested it yet [running this from a Lenovo r61 Thinkpad].

The subtitle font for a custom slide show as little ascii blocks, but on screen display properly. It’s the helvetica font that is being used for all text elements.

This was dead easy. I downloaded the tarball, unzipped it, and it “just worked”. I was prompted for a location for the song files and it created the database there. Dual Screen not attempted or tested.

I noticed two problems. Firstly I could only get solid background colours, no pictures. Secondly a certain apostrophe in the text of a song threw the rendering out (I only noticed this on one song). Both non critical! It’s great to know that if I have a USB stick with my “set” on, and a puppy linux live CD I could get an emergency opensong running on a laptop with a failed hard disk.

There is currently no other specifically targetted distro however users may find that the release tar.gz (aka “tarball”) will run on their distro. Please add a report to the wiki for any unmentioned distro on which you have OpenSong running.

Mandriva 2009 works well with the compiled source.. May do a write up after we have more time with it..

WINE is a compatability layer that enables API calls for Windows to work on Linux (and other x86 based unixes). This means that the OpenSong MS Windows executable files can be used with a Linux distro.

Tests have shown running via WINE will not enable dual screen modes (and this is confirmed by reports on the http://www.winehq.org/ site that the hooks needed are not in place).

Dual screen has been confirmed to work using WINE 1.0.1 and Xinerama on Ubuntu 8.10. Issues: No picture backgrounds, only solid colors.

OpenSong is written in RealBasic and requires the build environment from RealBasic (which is available as a free-gratis Standard Edition and a paid for Professional Edition in addition to non-free editions for other environments). Cross-compilation is disabled in the free-gratis standard edition. Or it was in mine. — p bhj 2007/10/07 23:42