Bundling QML/QtQuick may need 2 runs

[userappgate]

as of title ("List depend on qtdeclarative5-dev-tools")

[userappgate]

it errors out, about the lack of that binary. I don't know if it should actually be included in the appimage but isn't.

[probonopd]

Can you provide a link to the application that you are trying to bundle?

[userappgate]

https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term

This. I compiled it locally and it works fine.

[probonopd]

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install gitbuild-essential qmlscene libgl1-mesa-dev
cd cool-retro-term
git clone --recursive https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term.git
cd cool-retro-term
export PATH=/tmp/.mount_QtCreator-5.7.0-x86_64/5.7/gcc_64/bin/:$PATH
qmake
make

./cool-retro-term 
# This application failed to start because it could not find or load the Qt platform plugin "xcb"
in "".

export QT_PLUGIN_PATH=/tmp/.mount_QtCreator-5.7.0-x86_64/5.7/gcc_64/plugins/
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/tmp/.mount_QtCreator-5.7.0-x86_64/5.7/gcc_64/lib/
export QTDIR=/tmp/.mount_QtCreator-5.7.0-x86_64/5.7/gcc_64 # not needed?

./cool-retro-term QQmlApplicationEngine failed to load component
qrc:/main.qml:24 module "QtGraphicalEffects" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:23 module "QtQuick.Controls" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:22 module "QtQuick.Window" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:21 module "QtQuick" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:24 module "QtGraphicalEffects" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:23 module "QtQuick.Controls" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:22 module "QtQuick.Window" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:21 module "QtQuick" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:24 module "QtGraphicalEffects" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:23 module "QtQuick.Controls" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:22 module "QtQuick.Window" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:21 module "QtQuick" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:24 module "QtGraphicalEffects" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:23 module "QtQuick.Controls" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:22 module "QtQuick.Window" is not installed
qrc:/main.qml:21 module "QtQuick" is not installed

# When I do

export QML2_IMPORT_PATH=/tmp/.mount_QtCreator-5.7.0-x86_64/5.7/gcc_64/qml/

# then it runs.

Looks like the code to bundle QML is there but /home/me/build-linuxdeployqt-Desktop_Qt_5_7_0_GCC_64bit-Debug/linuxdeployqt/linuxdeployqt /home/me/cool-retro-term/cool-retro-term -qmldir=/home/me/cool-retro-term/qml -verbose=3 must be used.

When doing this, then some of the QML plugins do get copied to qml/ but the bundled app still complains:

QQmlApplicationEngine failed to load component
qrc:/main.qml:24 module "QtGraphicalEffects" is not installed

Cannot load QML interface

Copying in all the files under 5.7/gcc_64/qml/QtGraphicalEffects solves this, then we get

QQmlApplicationEngine failed to load component
qrc:/main.qml:132 Type ApplicationSettings unavailable
qrc:/ApplicationSettings.qml:26 Type Storage unavailable
qrc:/Storage.qml:22 module "QtQuick.LocalStorage" is not installed

Cannot load QML interface

Deploying 5.7/gcc_64/qml/QtQuick/LocalStorage would solve this.

When I copy in the missing parts manually, then the lack of running patchelf makes it not work (tries to load Qt components from system Qt in /sur/lib which obviously fails). However, when I run linuxdeployqt a second time, it does the patching.

So it is possible to bundle cool-retro-term with some manual tweaking, but linuxdeployqt still needs to be worked on, so that no manual intervention will be necessary.

[probonopd]

Working with some manual steps:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install gitbuild-essential qmlscene libgl1-mesa-dev
git clone --recursive https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term.git
cd cool-retro-term
export PATH=/tmp/.mount_QtCreator-5.7.0-x86_64/5.7/gcc_64/bin/:$PATH
qmake
make
cd ..
wget https://transfer.sh/tlUbT/linuxdeployqt.appimage
chmod a+x linuxdeployqt.appimage
./linuxdeployqt.appimage /home/me/cool-retro-term/cool-retro-term -qmldir=/home/me/cool-retro-term/qmltermwidget/

# Work around https://github.com/probonopd/linuxdeployqt/issues/25
cp -r /tmp/.mount_QtCreator-5.7.0-x86_64/5.7/gcc_64/qml/QtQuick/Dialogs cool-retro-term/qml/QtQuick/
cp -r /tmp/.mount_QtCreator-5.7.0-x86_64/5.7/gcc_64/qml/QtQuick/PrivateWidgets cool-retro-term/qml/QtQuick/
cp -r /tmp/.mount_QtCreator-5.7.0-x86_64/5.7/gcc_64/qml/QtQuick/LocalStorage cool-retro-term/qml/QtQuick/

# Run again so that the manually copied in libraries get their rpath set
./linuxdeployqt.appimage /home/me/cool-retro-term/cool-retro-term -qmldir=/home/me/cool-retro-term/qmltermwidget/

cool-retro-term/cool-retro-term # runs!

[probonopd]

So the remaining question is:

Why doesn't it deploy

• QtQuick/Dialogs
• QtQuick/PrivateWidgets
• QtQuick/LocalStorage

automatically?

[userappgate]

It could be because AFAIK QML is run dynamically, so probably the files are loaded at runtime and paths do not appear in the binary?

[probonopd]

We might have inherited this issue: https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-45977

[larpon]

The only "fix" I've been able to come up with in my python version was to let the user specify the dynamically loaded QML imports in the arguments like this: --qml-import "QtMultimedia 5.0" --qml-import "QtQuick.Dialogs 1.2"

Then write a temporary dummy .qml file using those imports and run qmlimportscanner on that. Not beautiful but it works.

[probonopd]

80aca76 Fix bundling of QtQuick/PrivateWidgets. Still have to run linuxdeployqt twice so that it finds all Sql libs. Why? Otherwise, works. No more manual copying needed.

[probonopd]

Also in https://github.com/probonopd/xdgurl-1/blob/patch-1/.travis.yml, https://travis-ci.org/probonopd/xdgurl-1/builds/171791783

[probonopd]

Still need to run twice, https://github.com/probonopd/linuxdeployqt/commit/4b2c81ff84ac4b869ce60eb2651d6d1bd5cb6b0b

Revert this once running twice is no longer needed.

[probonopd]

QtQuick.Layouts gets deployed now, but QtQuick.Controls doesn't. Why? What can we do to have it deployed automatically?

Would we have to parse all qml files for statements like

import QtQuick 2.7
import QtQuick.Controls 2.0
import QtQuick.Layouts 1.0

and deploy these? How do macedployqt and windeployqt solve this? Is this what qmlimportscanner is supposed to do?

[larpon]

Are you relying on qmlimportscanner? Some of the guys at QtMob says it's got a bad habit of not finding things. I was recommended to have a dummy file, e.g. imports.qml in the project root directory with all (or troublesome) imports in it. So until it's fixed you might want to roll your own import scanner? :-/

[probonopd]

Yes I am using qmlimportscanner, but perhaps I am running it with the wrong arguments?

[larpon]

It never hurts to double check - just wanted to note that it's known to be inconsistent in it's import discoveries (some runs work - some runs don't) - I've experienced it several times now with the version from 5.6.x

[probonopd]

See https://github.com/probonopd/linuxdeployqt/issues/78#issuecomment-280933299 for my current suspicion

[TheAssassin]

I guess the algorithm checking for libraries should just be implemented like here: https://github.com/Genymobile/copydeps

They just create a dependency tree (a real tree structure, see the graphics), then traverse the graph, and have the list of libraries to bundle. That shouldn't be too hard to implement on our side, too.

I'd love to be able to generate such graphs with linuxdeployqt, too.

[probonopd]

PR welcome! :+1: :100: