VideoTools Installation Guide for Linux & WSL

This guide provides detailed instructions for installing VideoTools on Linux and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) using the automated script.

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One-Command Installation

The recommended method for all Unix-like systems is the scripts/linux/install.sh script.

bash scripts/linux/install.sh

This single command automates the entire setup process.

What the Installer Does

1. Go Verification: Checks if Go (version 1.21 or later) is installed and available in your PATH.
2. Build from Source: Cleans any previous builds, downloads all necessary Go dependencies, and compiles the VideoTools binary.
3. Path Selection: Prompts you to choose an installation location:
   • System-wide: /usr/local/bin (Requires sudo privileges). Recommended for multi-user systems.
   • User-local: ~/.local/bin (Default). Recommended for most users as it does not require sudo.
4. Install Binary: Copies the compiled binary to the selected location and makes it executable.
5. Configure Shell: Detects your shell (bash or zsh) and updates the corresponding resource file (~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc) to:
   • Add the installation directory to your PATH.
   • Source the matching alias script (alias.sh for bash, alias.zsh for zsh).
6. Whisper Model Seed (Optional): Downloads the whisper.cpp small model from the Leak Technologies mirror (fallback to upstream) when missing.
7. In-App Dependency Actions: Settings > Dependencies now includes FFmpeg install/uninstall actions using your detected Linux package manager.

After Installation

You must reload your shell for the changes to take effect:

# For bash users:
source ~/.bashrc

# For zsh users:
source ~/.zshrc

# For fish users (manual setup required):
source ~/.config/fish/config.fish

You can now run the application from anywhere by simply typing VideoTools. The Player module includes a fullscreen toggle in the playback controls. Settings and long panels use adaptive scroll speed for smoother navigation. Settings tabs scroll independently so the tab header stays visible. Preferences include hardware acceleration detection and module visibility toggles. The Subtitles module can extract embedded tracks losslessly or OCR image-based tracks to SRT/ASS (requires Tesseract). Conversion workers now catch internal panics and surface a failure dialog instead of closing the UI. If a conversion was active when the app closed, a recovery notice appears on next launch.

Package format: Linux releases ship as the main VT package. Install runtime dependencies from Settings > Dependencies or via scripts/linux/install.sh.

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Convenience Commands

The installation script sets up a few helpful aliases:

• VideoTools: Runs the main application.
• VideoToolsRebuild: Forces a full rebuild of the application from source.
• VideoToolsClean: Cleans all build artifacts and clears the Go cache for the project.

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Build Artifacts

• Build packages are written to dist/linux/<channel>/.
• Each build writes a build.json file alongside the zip artifact.
• Set VT_BUILD_CHANNEL=stable for stable artifacts; default is dev.
• Forgejo dev builds also publish an AppImage (<version>_linux.AppImage) with the VT icon embedded.

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Manual Installation

If you prefer to perform the steps manually:

1. Build the Binary:

   CGO_ENABLED=1 go build -o VideoTools .
   

2. Install the Binary:

   • User-local:

     mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
     cp VideoTools ~/.local/bin/
     

   • System-wide:

     sudo cp VideoTools /usr/local/bin/
     

3. Update Shell Configuration: Add the following lines to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc file, replacing /path/to/VideoTools with the actual absolute path to the project directory.

   # Add VideoTools to PATH
   export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
   
   # Source VideoTools aliases
   source /path/to/VideoTools/scripts/alias.sh   # bash
   # source /path/to/VideoTools/scripts/alias.zsh # zsh
   # source /path/to/VideoTools/scripts/alias.fish # fish
   

4. Reload Your Shell:

   source ~/.bashrc  # Or source ~/.zshrc
   

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Uninstallation

1. Remove the Binary:

   • If installed user-locally: rm ~/.local/bin/VideoTools
   • If installed system-wide: sudo rm /usr/local/bin/VideoTools

2. Remove Shell Configuration: Open your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc file and remove the lines that were added for VideoTools.

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Platform-Specific Notes

• Logs default to ~/Videos/VideoTools/logs and can be changed in Settings.

• WSL: The Linux instructions work without modification inside a WSL environment.