Followed developer instructions, installer says installation succeeded but nothing is installed

[GabLeRoux]

Hi there, I just wanted to make myself a screensaver for fun, but I can't manage to get the channel to sideload on RokuTV.

I followed instructions here:
https://developer.roku.com/en-ca/docs/developer-program/getting-started/developer-setup.md

At Step 3: Running samples

The sideloaded channel will automatically appear in the bottom row of “My Channels.”

It just doesn't happen here. I uploaded hello world zip file, had a success on roku's local development server from the device. I also tried a few other ways, I even fixed app.mk in #28

Doing it from command line, it also shows a success:

make install
*** Creating Screensaver.zip ***
>> removing old application zip /Users/gableroux/repos/roku/dist/apps/Screensaver.zip
>> creating destination directory /Users/gableroux/repos/roku/dist/apps
>> setting directory permissions for /Users/gableroux/repos/roku/dist/apps
>> copying imports
>> creating application zip /Users/gableroux/repos/roku/dist/apps/Screensaver.zip
zip warning: zip file empty
adding: images/ (stored 0%)
adding: images/4.jpg (deflated 4%)
adding: images/5.jpg (deflated 2%)
adding: images/2.jpg (deflated 2%)
adding: images/3.jpg (deflated 3%)
adding: images/1.jpg (deflated 5%)
adding: manifest (deflated 29%)
adding: source/ (stored 0%)
adding: source/main.brs (deflated 60%)
adding: components/ (stored 0%)
adding: components/ScreensaverFade.xml (deflated 49%)
adding: components/ScreensaverFade.brs (deflated 62%)
*** packaging Screensaver complete ***
*** Note: application check not available ***
Checking dev server at 192.168.0.73...
Device reports as "grosse tv".
Dev server is ready.
Installing Screensaver...
Result: Application Received: 2609427 bytes stored.
Install Success.

When I run the above command, the home screen flashes maybe 200ms (enough for me to see something got refreshed on the home screen), but app is not there. I tried many zips from current repo, the hello world example, etc. The channel is not showing anywhere.

Is there something I'm missing? Does developer mode only works properly on Roku sticks or something like that?

I have a TCL RokuTV and just wanted to play with it.

I tried a factory reset of the device, it installed an update (even tho I looked for updates from the settings yesterday and it had none). My Roku software is at latest version as of today: 9.4.2

[GabLeRoux]

Ok got it. After testing a bit more, I think I was using the wrong zip file each time and the other tests I tried probably failed for some other reasons. So now, I'm only wondering; are there logs available somewhere? All apps I tried so far are installing fine but fail to open and I have no error anywhere. Hard to tell what's wrong.

If anyone happen to get a similar error, if you're using the hello world app, make sure you unzip hello-world-master.zip and use hello-world-master/dist/apps/hello-world.zip, this one will succeed to install and hello world app will open instantly.

I'm closing this one and will ask for logs in a different issue.

[GabLeRoux]

Quick update here; other installations did succeed, but I was expecting a channel to show up on home 🏠. Turns out screensavers appear in Settings > Theme > Screensaver when installed and not on home.

In other words, depending on the code:

• ⚙️ If you implement a sub RunScreenSaver(), a screensaver entry will appear in the settings.
• 🏠 If you implement a sub Main(), a channel will be created on home.

One can do something like this to have both a channel and a setting:

sub Main()
    RunScreenSaver()
end sub

Sub RunScreenSaver()
    ' do something
end sub

So I was doing things right, I was just not looking at the right place 🤦. I would have expected the screensaver to launch on installation just like channels do.

Also, for logs, you can just telnet on the device as explained here:

• Roku documentation - Debugging code
• Stackoverflow: How do I get detailed logs from the Roku?

telnet $YOUR_DEVICE_IP 8085

🤛 🎤