Build and package SoftProjector on Linux with Qt 6

.github/workflows/linux.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+name: Linux build
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [ '**' ]
+  pull_request:
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+# A branch push and its pull request point at the same commit. Group runs by
+# that commit and cancel redundant ones so the two events don't build twice.
+concurrency:
+  group: linux-build-${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha || github.sha }}
+  cancel-in-progress: true
+
+jobs:
+  ubuntu:
+    name: Build on Ubuntu (Qt6)
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      - name: Install Qt6 build dependencies
+        run: |
+          sudo apt-get update
+          sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+            build-essential \
+            qt6-base-dev \
+            qt6-base-dev-tools \
+            qt6-declarative-dev \
+            qt6-multimedia-dev \
+            qt6-tools-dev \
+            libgl1-mesa-dev
+
+      - name: Build
+        run: |
+          mkdir -p build && cd build
+          qmake6 ../src/softProjector.pro
+          make -j"$(nproc)"
+
+      - name: Headless smoke test
+        run: |
+          cd src/unix_build/bin
+          # Exit 124 (still running when the timeout fires) or 0 both mean it
+          # started without crashing; anything else is a failure.
+          set +e
+          QT_QPA_PLATFORM=offscreen timeout 10 ./SoftProjector
+          code=$?
+          set -e
+          if [ "$code" != "124" ] && [ "$code" != "0" ]; then
+            echo "SoftProjector exited with $code"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+
+      - name: Upload binary
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          name: SoftProjector-ubuntu-x86_64
+          path: src/unix_build/bin/SoftProjector
+
+  fedora-rpm:
+    name: Build RPM on Fedora
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04
+    container:
+      image: fedora:41
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      - name: Install build dependencies
+        run: |
+          dnf -y install \
+            gcc-c++ make git rpm-build rpmdevtools \
+            qt6-qtbase-devel \
+            qt6-qtdeclarative-devel \
+            qt6-qtmultimedia-devel \
+            qt6-qttools-devel \
+            desktop-file-utils
+
+      - name: Build RPM
+        run: |
+          # git archive needs the checkout dir marked safe inside the container
+          git config --global --add safe.directory "$PWD"
+          rpmdev-setuptree
+          VERSION=$(rpmspec -q --qf '%{version}\n' packaging/rpm/softprojector.spec | head -1)
+          git archive --format=tar.gz \
+            --prefix="softprojector-${VERSION}/" \
+            -o ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/softprojector-${VERSION}.tar.gz HEAD
+          rpmbuild -ba packaging/rpm/softprojector.spec
+
+      - name: Upload RPM
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+        with:
+          name: SoftProjector-fedora-rpm
+          path: ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/*/*.rpm

.gitignore

@@ -31,7 +31,9 @@
 Makefile*
 object_script*
 softProjector.pro.user
-unknownsys_build/*
-win32_build/*
-unix_build/*
-mac_build/*
+unknownsys_build/
+win32_build/
+unix_build/
+mac_build/
+softprojector-intel.md
+softprojector-linux-port-plan.md

3rdparty/headers/qmediaplaylist.h

@@ -5,8 +5,8 @@
 #define QMEDIAPLAYLIST_H
 
 #include <QObject>
-
-#include <qmediaenumdebug.h>
+#include <QUrl>
+#include <QList>
 
 QT_BEGIN_NAMESPACE
 
@@ -89,7 +89,4 @@ public slots:
 
 QT_END_NAMESPACE
 
-Q_MEDIA_ENUM_DEBUG(QMediaPlaylist, PlaybackMode)
-Q_MEDIA_ENUM_DEBUG(QMediaPlaylist, Error)
-
 #endif // QMEDIAPLAYLIST_H

3rdparty/sources/qmediaplaylist.cpp

@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 // Copyright (C) 2016 The Qt Company Ltd.
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR LGPL-3.0-only OR GPL-2.0-only OR GPL-3.0-only
 
-#include "../include/qmediaplaylist.h"
-#include "../include/qmediaplaylist_p.h"
+#include "../headers/qmediaplaylist.h"
+#include "../headers/qmediaplaylist_p.h"
 #include "qplaylistfileparser.h"
 
 #include <QCoreApplication>

3rdparty/sources/qmediaplaylist_p.cpp

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // Copyright (C) 2016 The Qt Company Ltd.
 // SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR LGPL-3.0-only OR GPL-2.0-only OR GPL-3.0-only
 
-#include "../include/qmediaplaylist_p.h"
+#include "../headers/qmediaplaylist_p.h"
 
 QT_BEGIN_NAMESPACE
 

BUILDING_LINUX.md

@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+# Building SoftProjector on Linux
+
+These instructions cover building the Qt6 version of SoftProjector on Linux.
+They were verified on Fedora 44 (KDE) with Qt 6.11.1, but the same steps apply
+to any distribution with Qt 6 packages — only the package-manager commands
+differ.
+
+## Prerequisites
+
+SoftProjector needs Qt 6 (core, gui, widgets, network, sql, qml/quick,
+printsupport, and — importantly — multimedia and multimediawidgets), plus a
+C++17 compiler and `qmake`.
+
+### Fedora / RHEL
+
+```sh
+sudo dnf install gcc-c++ make \
+    qt6-qtbase-devel \
+    qt6-qtdeclarative-devel \
+    qt6-qtmultimedia-devel \
+    qt6-qttools-devel
+```
+
+`qt6-qtmultimedia-devel` is easy to miss and is required — without it `qmake`
+fails with `Unknown module(s) in QT: multimedia multimediawidgets`.
+
+### Debian / Ubuntu
+
+```sh
+sudo apt install build-essential \
+    qt6-base-dev \
+    qt6-declarative-dev \
+    qt6-multimedia-dev \
+    qt6-tools-dev
+```
+
+## Build
+
+Build out-of-tree from the `src` directory:
+
+```sh
+mkdir -p build && cd build
+qmake6 ../src/softProjector.pro
+make -j"$(nproc)"
+```
+
+On some distributions the Qt 6 qmake is called `qmake` rather than `qmake6`.
+
+The resulting binary is written to `src/unix_build/bin/SoftProjector`.
+
+## Run
+
+```sh
+./src/unix_build/bin/SoftProjector
+```
+
+On first launch the application creates its SQLite database (`spData.sqlite`)
+next to the binary.
+
+## Media playback
+
+Qt 6's multimedia stack uses FFmpeg rather than platform-specific codec
+backends, which is what makes video and audio playback portable across Linux.
+Hardware-accelerated decoding uses VA-API/VDPAU where available; missing
+acceleration backends fall back to software decoding and are not fatal.
+
+## Notes
+
+- SoftProjector uses `qmake`, not CMake. The project file is
+  [src/softProjector.pro](src/softProjector.pro).
+- A copy of Qt's `QMediaPlaylist` (removed from Qt 6's multimedia module) is
+  vendored under [3rdparty/](3rdparty/) and compiled into the build.

packaging/linux/softprojector.desktop

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+[Desktop Entry]
+Type=Application
+Version=1.0
+Name=SoftProjector
+GenericName=Media Projection
+Comment=Display song lyrics, Bible verses and media for church services
+Exec=SoftProjector
+Icon=softprojector
+Terminal=false
+Categories=Office;Presentation;
+Keywords=projector;church;lyrics;bible;presentation;worship;

packaging/rpm/softprojector.spec

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+# The binary is stripped by qmake's install step, so there is no debuginfo
+# to collect; disable the (empty) debug subpackages.
+%global debug_package %{nil}
+
+Name:           softprojector
+Version:        2.2
+Release:        1%{?dist}
+Summary:        Open source church presentation software
+
+License:        GPLv3
+URL:            http://softprojector.org
+Source0:        %{name}-%{version}.tar.gz
+
+BuildRequires:  gcc-c++
+BuildRequires:  make
+BuildRequires:  qt6-qtbase-devel
+BuildRequires:  qt6-qtdeclarative-devel
+BuildRequires:  qt6-qtmultimedia-devel
+BuildRequires:  qt6-qttools-devel
+BuildRequires:  desktop-file-utils
+
+Requires:       qt6-qtmultimedia
+Requires:       qt6-qtdeclarative
+
+%description
+SoftProjector displays song lyrics, Bible verses, announcements and media
+during church services. It supports a separate projector/display screen and
+uses Qt 6's FFmpeg-based multimedia backend for video and audio playback.
+
+%prep
+%autosetup -n %{name}-%{version}
+
+%build
+mkdir -p build
+cd build
+qmake6 ../src/softProjector.pro PREFIX=%{_prefix}
+%make_build
+
+%install
+cd build
+make install INSTALL_ROOT=%{buildroot}
+desktop-file-validate %{buildroot}%{_datadir}/applications/softprojector.desktop
+
+%files
+%license LICENSE
+%doc README.md BUILDING_LINUX.md
+%{_bindir}/SoftProjector
+%{_datadir}/applications/softprojector.desktop
+%{_datadir}/icons/hicolor/128x128/apps/softprojector.png
+
+%changelog
+* Sat Jul 25 2026 SoftProjector Linux port - 2.2-1
+- Initial RPM packaging for the Qt6 Linux build.

src/softProjector.pro

@@ -45,6 +45,17 @@ UI_DIR = $${RES_DIR}/ui
 RCC_DIR = $${RES_DIR}/rcc
 OUT_PWD = $${RES_DIR}/bin
 
+# Vendored QMediaPlaylist (removed from Qt6 multimedia; kept here for Qt6 build)
+INCLUDEPATH += $${PWD}/../3rdparty/headers
+
+SOURCES += $${PWD}/../3rdparty/sources/qmediaplaylist.cpp \
+    $${PWD}/../3rdparty/sources/qmediaplaylist_p.cpp \
+    $${PWD}/../3rdparty/sources/qplaylistfileparser.cpp
+
+HEADERS += $${PWD}/../3rdparty/headers/qmediaplaylist.h \
+    $${PWD}/../3rdparty/headers/qmediaplaylist_p.h \
+    $${PWD}/../3rdparty/headers/qplaylistfileparser.h
+
 SOURCES += sources/main.cpp \
     sources/softprojector.cpp \
     sources/songwidget.cpp \
@@ -170,3 +181,19 @@ RESOURCES += softprojector.qrc
 win32 {
     RC_FILE = softprojector.rc
 }
+
+# Linux/Unix (non-macOS) install rules — used by `make install` and by the
+# RPM/AppImage packaging. Override the prefix with `qmake PREFIX=/some/path`.
+unix:!macx {
+    isEmpty(PREFIX): PREFIX = /usr
+
+    target.path = $$PREFIX/bin
+
+    desktop.path = $$PREFIX/share/applications
+    desktop.files = $$PWD/../packaging/linux/softprojector.desktop
+
+    icon.path = $$PREFIX/share/icons/hicolor/128x128/apps
+    icon.files = $$PWD/icons/softprojector.png
+
+    INSTALLS += target desktop icon
+}

src/sources/generalsettingwidget.cpp

@@ -53,11 +53,14 @@ void GeneralSettingWidget::setSettings(GeneralSettings settings)
 void GeneralSettingWidget::loadSettings()
 {
     ui->checkBoxDisplayOnTop->setChecked(mySettings.displayIsOnTop);
+#ifdef Q_OS_WIN
+    // The dark theme is applied only on Windows (see main.cpp) and its
+    // preference is stored in the Windows registry.
     QSettings settings("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Themes\\Personalize",QSettings::NativeFormat);
-    if(settings.value("SoftProjectorUseLightTheme")==0)
-        ui->checkBoxUseDarkTheme->setChecked(true);
-    else
-        ui->checkBoxUseDarkTheme->setChecked(false);
+    ui->checkBoxUseDarkTheme->setChecked(settings.value("SoftProjectorUseLightTheme")==0);
+#else
+    ui->checkBoxUseDarkTheme->setChecked(false);
+#endif
     ui->labelDarkThemeInfo->setToolTip(qApp->applicationDirPath()+"/DarkTheme.ini");
     ui->checkBoxDisplayOnStartUp->setChecked(mySettings.displayOnStartUp);
 
@@ -353,6 +356,9 @@ void GeneralSettingWidget::on_comboBoxTheme_activated(int index)
 
 void GeneralSettingWidget::on_checkBoxUseDarkTheme_clicked()
 {
+#ifdef Q_OS_WIN
+    // The dark theme is a Windows-only feature; its preference is stored in the
+    // Windows registry and applied at startup (see main.cpp).
     QSettings settings("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Themes\\Personalize", QSettings::NativeFormat);
     if (ui->checkBoxUseDarkTheme->isChecked())
         settings.setValue("SoftProjectorUseLightTheme", 0);
@@ -361,4 +367,5 @@ void GeneralSettingWidget::on_checkBoxUseDarkTheme_clicked()
     QMessageBox msgBox;
     msgBox.setText("Re-launch the application for the changes to take place.");
     msgBox.exec();
+#endif
 }

src/sources/main.cpp

@@ -21,6 +21,9 @@
 #include <QMessageBox>
 #include <QtSql>
 #include <QStyleFactory>
+#include <QStandardPaths>
+#include <QFileInfo>
+#include <QDir>
 #include "../headers/softprojector.hpp"
 
 // Definitions for database versions 'dbVer' numbers
@@ -197,7 +200,21 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
     else
         database_dir = cur_app_path + QDir::separator();
 #else
-    database_dir = a.applicationDirPath() + QDir::separator();
+    // Prefer writing beside the binary when that location is writable
+    // (portable install / running from the build directory). When it is not —
+    // e.g. a system package installed under /usr/bin — fall back to a per-user
+    // data directory so the database can still be created.
+    {
+        const QString appDir = a.applicationDirPath();
+        if (QFileInfo(appDir).isWritable())
+            database_dir = appDir + QDir::separator();
+        else
+        {
+            const QString dataDir = QStandardPaths::writableLocation(QStandardPaths::AppDataLocation);
+            QDir().mkpath(dataDir);
+            database_dir = dataDir + QDir::separator();
+        }
+    }
 #endif
 #ifdef Q_OS_WIN
     // Use Dark Theme