Will you give a release build for ubuntu 24.04 too and in Appimage format too?

[kumsumit]

I have Ubuntu 24.04, i think many have too.
Please consider to provide a release build for Ubuntu 24.04.
Please also consider to release in the AppImage format, because every Linux user doesn't have Ubuntu.
AppImage format is useful for them.
Building from source is time consuming process and doesn't preferred by everyone
Thank you

[letsfindaway]

In the meantime you might have a look at my experimental builds. Here I also build a release candidate of the upcoming OpenBoard 1.7.2 for Ubuntu 24.04.

[sebojolais]

You could consider also the FlatPak.
It is mentioned on the Downloads wiki.

[Michael24Git]

Hi,
I am using openboard always with Userdirectories for e.g. Data, Video, Audio etc. My productive environment is Ubuntu (Voyager) 22.04 and it works fine. I am using Userdirectories, because it is easier to sync just ONE Folder with my Nextcloud.

But I would like to switch to 24.04 in the near future and in my testing environment on another partition (Ubuntu Voyager 24.04.) I installed openboard in Ver. 1.7.2 RC and it seems to work, but it will totally ignore my settings in /etc/openboard.config with my directory-entries... like:
[App]
DataDirectory=/media/mypathto/Unterricht
UserImageDirectory=/media/mypathto/Bilder
UserVideoDirectory=/media/mypathto/Videos
UserAudioDirectory=/media/mypathto/Audio

and at
[podcast]
RecordingDirectory=/media/mypathto/Aufzeichnungen

The path /media/mypathto leads to another partition, where my data is stored.

So my question is, if you have canceled possibility for Userdirectories (hopefully not), or if you have any idea, what I can do with 1.7.2 on 24.04 and Userdirectories?
Best, Michael

[letsfindaway]

For the location of configuration files see Configuration at the Wiki. The file is located in your home directory and is called OpenBoardUser.config.

There is also a configuration file OpenBoard.config delivered and installed with the application. For my builds, it is in /etc/openboard, and that's probably the file you refer to. You can also modify this file if you have the need to make a change affecting all users on your machine. This file is in /opt/openboard/etc/ for the packages downloaded from this GitHub page, but is in /etc/openboard for my FHS compliant packages.

[Michael24Git]

thank you so far!
In my Ubuntu 24.04 with openboard 1.7.2 I do have

etc/openboard/openboard.config
and
/home/user/.local/share/openboard/openboarduser.config

I do not have /opt/openboard/

Since years I am using etc/openboard/openboard.config for my personal path entries and it always worked.

Now with Ubuntu 24.04 and openboard 1.7.2 I tried to modify BOTH files (one after the other) openboard.config AND openboarduser.config - but with NO effect.

That s why I thougt, it might be a bug with 1.7.2 ... or do you have another idea?
Best, Michael

[letsfindaway]

thank you so far! In my Ubuntu 24.04 with openboard 1.7.2 I do have

etc/openboard/openboard.config and /home/user/.local/share/openboard/openboarduser.config

So far, so good. With the correct UpperLowerCase it should be

/etc/openboard/OpenBoard.config
/home/user/.local/share/openboard/OpenBoardUser.config

correct?

I do not have /opt/openboard/

So you never installed a .deb package from the official download site.

Since years I am using etc/openboard/openboard.config for my personal path entries and it always worked.

This in turn leads me to the conclusion that you installed the openboard package directly coming from the Ubuntu repositories. I think here you currently get 1.6.4 (https://packages.ubuntu.com/noble/openboard). These packages again are coming from Debian, and here the package maintainer indeed uses this location for the system wide configuration file.
Is this assumption correct?

Now with Ubuntu 24.04 and openboard 1.7.2 I tried to modify BOTH files (one after the other) openboard.config AND openboarduser.config - but with NO effect.

If they are called OpenBoard.config and OpenBoardUser.config then this should work.

That s why I thougt, it might be a bug with 1.7.2 ... or do you have another idea? Best, Michael

But wait: could it be that the two packages (from Ubuntu and from my experimental packages) conflict in some way? You should probably uninstall the official Ubuntu package first and then install my experimental package.

[Michael24Git]

Of course it is better to use upper and lower cases.. sorry, I will use it from now.
Yes I meant exactly those files. Normally I downloaded the .deb-files from
(https://github.com/OpenBoard-org/OpenBoard/releases)

I don t think, I installed OpenBoard from the packages, because I knew IF it will work at 24.04 then only with the Vers. 1.7.2. I got the .deb-file from
(https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/letsfindaway:/experimental/xUbuntu_24.04/amd64/openboard_1.7.2-rc.240311-1_amd64.deb)

I tried to remove an reinstall 1.7.2 several times with different methods such as sudo apt purge and with sudo dpkg -P. After removing OpenBoard I always manually deleted the
OpenBoard-folder in ./home/user/.local/share.
But no luck until now...

OpenBoard seems to work, but it still looks like, it ignores my entries for my personal directories in /etc/openboard/OpenBoard.config.

In terminal I did cd //media/mypathto/Unterricht and it worked, so the path-entry should be correct (like it is at my other Ubuntu 22.04). And I am able to use files from my data-partition, that s why I think it can t be a problem with user-rights.

I am using several partitions. There is one for my data, one for the new Ubuntu (Voyager) 24.04, one for Ubuntu (Voyager) 22.04, one for Win11.
So I can use my data from every OS I am using at multiboot. At Ubuntu 22.04 and Win11 with OpenBoard 1.7.1 everything is working fine, even with my personal directories. Only the partition with new installed Ubuntu (Voyager) 24.04. with OpenBoard 1.7.2 shows the problem.

"If they are called OpenBoard.config and OpenBoardUser.config then this should work." Yes, I know, but sadly it doesn t...

I tried to format my answer in a better way, but all I tried did not result in what I wanted... Sorry for that...

Is there anything I can do to figure out the problem? Any log-file or something like that...? Or do you have another idea?
Best, Michael

[letsfindaway]

One point I forgot to mention: The DataDirectory setting is only used from the OpenBoard.config file. It obviously cannot have any effect in the OpenBoardUser.config file, as this entry also determines the location of that file.

What I typically do if I want to find out which files a program is using, is strace. I think you have the strace utility by default on your system. You could then run OpenBoard as follows from a console:

strace /usr/bin/openboard 2>&1 | grep "OpenBoard.*config"

This gives you some idea what files are accessed and opened which contain OpenBoard and config in their name.

If you need help interpreting you may post the output here, enclosed in a code block (three backticks before and after the text)

[Michael24Git]

Ok thank you! I need DataDirctory too, so only OpenBoard.config is important for me.
I did strace like you mentioned
strace /usr/bin/openboard 2>&1 | grep "OpenBoard.*config"
and it resulted in:

access("/home/michael/.local/share/openboard/OpenBoardUser.config", F_OK) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/michael/.local/share/openboard/OpenBoardUser.config", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 29
statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/michael/.local/share/openboard/OpenBoardUser.config", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT|AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT, STATX_ALL, {stx_mask=STATX_ALL|STATX_MNT_ID, stx_attributes=0, stx_mode=S_IFREG|0664, stx_size=100, ...}) = 0
statx(AT_FDCWD, "/home/michael/.local/share/openboard/OpenBoardUser.config", AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT|AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT, STATX_ALL, {stx_mask=STATX_ALL|STATX_MNT_ID, stx_attributes=0, stx_mode=S_IFREG|0664, stx_size=100, ...}) = 0

No information about OpenBoard.config, which is my target-file.
I also tried
strace /usr/bin/openboard 2>&1 | grep "OpenBoard.config"
but with no result at all - empty line.

[letsfindaway]

That's absolutely strange and currently I cannot explain this. I would have expected that the trace starts with something like

access("/tmp/OpenBoard.config", F_OK)   = -1 ENOENT (Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden)

This file is probed during startup for some historical reasons and I cannot see how this code could be skipped. The constructor of UBSettings looks as follows:

OpenBoard/src/core/UBSettings.cpp

Lines 181 to 193 in 753eada

	UBSettings::UBSettings(QObject *parent)
	: QObject(parent)
	{
	InitKeyboardPaletteKeyBtnSizes();
	mAppSettings = UBSettings::getAppSettings();
	QString userSettingsFile = UBSettings::userDataDirectory() + "/"+qApp->applicationName()+"User.config";
	mUserSettings = new QSettings(userSettingsFile, QSettings::IniFormat, parent);
	init();
	}

It initializes the mAppSettings for OpenBoard.config and then the mUserSettings for OpenBoardUser.config. If we look at getAppSettings():

OpenBoard/src/core/UBSettings.cpp

Lines 156 to 164 in 753eada

	QSettings* UBSettings::getAppSettings()
	{
	if (!UBSettings::sAppSettings)
	{
	QString tmpSettings = QDir::tempPath() + "/" + qApp->applicationName() + ".config";
	QString appSettings = UBPlatformUtils::applicationEtcDirectory() + "/" + qApp->applicationName() + ".config";
	// tmpSettings exists when upgrading Uniboard on Mac (see UBPlatformUtils_mac.mm updater:willInstallUpdate:)
	if (QFile::exists(tmpSettings))

then it starts with a check for that /tmp file. The static variable sAppSettings is initialized with zero, so the guarding if should be true for the first call.

You don't have to care about all that stuff, but perhaps is somebody out here who could help identifying the problem.

[Michael24Git]

well, thank you very much for your effort!
I think I would try a totally new install of Ubuntu (Voyager) 24.04 and then try Openboard 1.7.2 again...

[Michael24Git]

...well.... I reinstalled Ubuntu (Voyager) 24.04. and the same problem shows up... strace same result...

[Michael24Git]

OpenBoard WORKS NOW!!! Here is how:

1. I purged OpenBoard sudo apt-get purge openboard
2. I installed qt 6 with sudo apt install qt6-base-dev (before I had qt 5.15 or something like that...)
3. installing OpenBoard 1.7.2 qt6-version from
4. (https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/letsfindaway:/experimental/xUbuntu_24.04/amd64/openboard-qt6_1.7.2-rc.240531-1_amd64.deb)
5. editing /etc/OpenBoard.config with my personal directories like:
   [App]
   DataDirectory=/media/mypathto/Unterricht
   UserImageDirectory=/media/mypathto/Bilder
   UserVideoDirectory=/media/mypathto/Videos
   UserAudioDirectory=/media/mypathto/Audio
   and at
   [podcast]
   RecordingDirectory=/media/mypathto/Aufzeichnungen

DONE ! Of course I have absolutely NOOO idea, why, but for me that doesn t matter... ;-)