Arch Linux User Repository

I created this package because acestream-engine was upgraded to a beta version and I wanted to stay on the stable one.

This is a more user-friendly package of acestream engine, it contains a desktop entry to launch the GUI from applications menu, a service file to launch the engine as a systemd service (acestream user will not be show on the login display manager), libappindicator is required and it will be upgraded following only stable versions.

To start the engine, just select AceStream Engine from applications menu and an icon should appear in the system tray.

Alternatively, you could start the systemd service sudo systemctl start acestream-engine.service or enable it at boot sudo systemctl enable acestream-engine.service. In this way there's no icon in the system tray, but the engine is launched in memory cache mode: cache data is stored into RAM rather than disk.

Enjoy.

Many changes in this new update. Set directories following arch guidelines. Now app data goes in /var/lib/ACEStream or ~/.config/ACEStream.

acestream user has been reset to launch systemd service in a safer environment without using root (acestream user is not showed on login window). acestream user and /var/lib/ACEStream directory are set using systemd-sysusers and systemd-tmpfiles files respectively.

Tested systemd unit file, it's working to me using acestream user. This method is recommended since RAM cache mode is set avoiding to save useless cache data on the disk.

@digitalone: Thanks for your work!

@qark: You're right, tomorrow I will push the fix on a new update. So I should also change local directory from .local/share/ACESstream to .config/ACESstream

@digitalone: I guess, persistent here doesn't mean read-only. On the contrary, /var/lib "Must be writable", see file-hierarchy, e.g. PostgreSQL uses /var/lib/postgres for databases, logs, transactions, etc.

@qark: Reinstall to edit the initial desktop file, not the one you already edited. But it doesn't matter now since you resolved.

Reading Arch package guidelines, /var/lib is for persistent application storage, but acestream state dir is not really persistent, since it contains configuration files, database peers (that changes) and also cache data (you would remove it from time to time). /usr/share/ seems more suitable as application data.

Anyway, I did not receive issues from KDE or Gnome users, so your launcher that is not resolving environment variables is only a problem related to XFCE. Maybe you should file a bug to XFCE developers.

/var/lib/ACEStream looks more suitable than /usr/share/ACEStream according to https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs/ch04s11.html and https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs/ch05s08.html

@digitalone Yes, command from the terminal works, I've written that.

Why reinstall?

Edited desktop file works too.

@qark Did you launch that command from the terminal? Did it work?

Reinstall the package. Copy acestream desktop file inside /home/yourusername/.local/share/applications

Open that new desktop file and change exec line replacing $HOME with /home/yourusername

Launching from applications menu should start. If not, try to do this change directly in acestream desktop file inside /usr/share/applications

@digitalone

when and how you get this error?

I tried to launch 'Ace Stream Engine' from application menu (Whisker Menu). Nothing seemed to happen.

Then I tried to set Terminal=True in .desktop file and launch it. Terminal window appeared for a moment and closed.

Then I launched .desktop file using exo-open to get errors. Output uploaded to pastebin.

But that is not how I launch acestream usually and it's looks like minor bug to me. I can always run command from .desktop file in terminal directly.

I'm aware that this issue is separate from acestream user existence. And I understand that install script doesn't create this user anymore.

How you were launching acestream before the latest update?

As systemd service. I'd like to continue to run acestream as a service and I don't like that it runs as root now.

Install script is not creating any user. If you don't want to run it as a service, just start it normally using that command:

acestreamengine --client-gtk --state-dir $HOME/.local/share/ACEStream --log-file $HOME/.local/share/ACEStream/acestreamengine.log

The question is why your launcher is not working. If that command is working inside your terminal, there's no issue with it. It could be an XFCE bug. I can launch it from applications menu inside Plasma desktop.