Developer who doesn’t use Windows at all. I installed plugins before but had to rely on finding a Windows machine which I don’t find practical, especially knowing that adb works with developer mode enabled (just confirmed it using adb shell and scrcpy on Linux).
adb install will work from Linux.
You may need to upgrade the gradle plugin on Android Studio to build the wireless live streaming plugin
Seems to work from Linux install.
I’ll test the stream when I get back into the office.
Thanks for providing the example but as I mentioned in the topic the question is specifically about how to avoid doing the build myself. I’ve done that before (all via CLI and containers to be reproducible, e.g https://twitter.com/utopiah/status/1532385731234123777 , not Studio with GUI required) but as said and asked in the issue Releases don't include builds · Issue #5 · ricohapi/theta-wireless-live-streaming-plugin · GitHub the hope is to directly get the distributed .apk, insuring it’s the same build and avoiding extra work.
I believe you are raising two different requests.
The simpler one, per the GitHub issue, is that you want the apk to be included in the release to make it more convenient to test for people with the RICOH THETA in developer mode. I’m assuming that this is because sometimes there are a lot of stuff that needs to be installed to build the plugin. This is easy to understand. We can pass the request on in a report to RICOH.
I do not think it will be possible to get the apk from the store. The API or process of how to install the plugins from the store haven’t been published. I don’t think it is even possible to install the plugins from the official RICOH THETA mobile app on iOS/Android, which would indicate that there is no easy way to install the plugins via WiFi.
I believe that your second request is to have a way to install the plug-ins on the store from Linux for testing or use.
If this is the case, there is a difference between:
- request for an API, like a USB API, to install the plugin on the camera
- request for a way to get the apk from the store to your Linux machine so that you can install it either manually with adb or with some type of custom application (like a bash script)
Can you clarify your request for the above points?
There is no solution, but I want to pass on your request in a report to RICOH to represent the voice of the community accurately.
I think I found the solution : append apk to the URL.
Example : Wireless Live Streaming | RICOH THETA Plug-in Store becomes https://pluginstore.theta360.com/plugins/com.theta360.cloudstreaming/apk
Still, to clarify my perspective and hopefully address your points :
True I made some assumptions. I believed maybe incorrectly that Theta desktop application to install a plugin was “just” downloading it from the store via the provided URL then as a visual interface, possibly relying under the hood on adb, would only send the apk to the device. It might do more than that by e.g modifying a configuration file in order to add the installed application as a plugin. It might also do something similar for switching on developer mode.
Overall my underlying request is of course that everything available on other operating systems also work on Linux. This is important in general but I believe for Ricoh itself trying to value its developer ecosystem a way to bring a community of users often versed in development and thus with the capability of make that ecosystem grow.
Yes, providing the apk on all officials plugins would be a start but unfortunately that would mean only plugins made by Ricoh rather than others ones.
Overall I believe a mechanism that is both transparent to users and requiring little investment from Ricoh might be a good compromise to begin with. For this I would tend to think documented adb commands (assuming its sufficient) would be great.
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Awesome! That is a nice find. Thank you for sharing it.
Also, thanks for the feedback.
BTW, there’s fairly good support for the USB API and live streaming on Linux.
I’ll expand the document to include other forms of development and add your tip about the apk with attribution to you.
For viewing images on the Linux desktop, I use this:
Installation information on Ubuntu 20.04 is here:
BTW, I just realized that the THETA X can download and install the plug-ins directly from the camera body without any computer or mobile phone. There may be a way to make the process easier on Linux in the future.
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I put together the video below to help other people use the tip from @Utopiah
In my test, I had to use Vysor to set the permissions of the plugin before I could use it. Also, we might need to use the official mobile app or WebAPI or USB API to set the plug-in that will boot.
RICOH THETA Plugin Install from Linux: Dev Workflow Tip
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Since all plugins are moved to github, is there a way to download apk. Currently there is no way to install plugin on Theta X.
I can’t figure out how to download it. Perhaps someone else can figure it out?
Do you plan to install the plugins for adb?
ADB is the only way to install the apk for Theta X, right?
I’m not sure if the plugins will install on the X. I was just wondering what your plans were.
Have you installed these plugins?
Thanks for searching, the issue is you can not click install button on the page, either on desktop(tested on Mac and Ubuntu) or mobile browser. There is no way to install plugins.
Found possible apk, and trying Release v1.2.3 · ricohapi/theta-wireless-live-streaming-plugin · GitHub
Tried “adb devices” on both ubuntu 22 and Mac, none device found on both.
Theta X is on live mode connect by usb.
For ubuntu libuvc-theta and libuvc-theta-example tried. ./gst_viewer said “Theta Not Found”.
lsusb printed THeta X correctly.
Any clue?
Oh, I see the problem now. The link to the desktop app is not on the new software download page. There used to be a link to a desktop app to install the plugins.
@jcasman can you find the desktop app on the RICOH site? I think people need the app to install plugins.
to stream to linux, this document may help.
For the device not found error, do you have two cameras on your computer? If there is only a single webcam, they change line 190 to /dev/video0
Thanks for your information, found the basic app for Theta X, it is here:
But can not connect to my apple silicon macbook. Will try a different laptop.
I eventually managed to install plugin on my Theta x. And figured out, device should be on CL mode, note live mode.
Now can wirelessly stream to my local rtmp server by ffmpeg, although it is slower than youtube…
RTSP plugin is not working on X, need to try a different way to get live stream on low latency.
Thanks for sharing the link. I see it now.
How did you find the download link?
When I click on the icon below,
It goes to this link
https://support.theta360.com/en/download/
Which does not list the desktop app.
The link you provided does list the desktop app. I’m wondering how people find that link.
In the office we use the desktop app with Apple silicon. I used it with an M1 MacBook Air.
The RTSP plug-in source code is here:
You may be able to recompile it for the X using Android Studio.
If you connect the X to a small computer (like a Jetson Nano) with a USB cable, you can use ffmeg on the small computer to get the stream to your local RTMP server.
For example:
ffmpeg -f lavfi -i anullsrc -f v4l2 -s 1920x960 -r 10 -i /dev/video2 \
-vcodec libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p \
-b:v 2500k \
-codec:a libmp3lame -ar 44100 -b:a 11025 -bufsize 512k \
-f flv rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2/$SECRET_KEY
A few years ago, we used this to improve performance.
Paul Gullet saw a doubling of the framerate.
On your screenshot, there is a firmware link, click to firmware version list page Download - Firmware | RICOH THETA X
On this page there is a link to the basic app page
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