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Media Tool

A standalone Qt app for recording a BC250 Bazzite Suite installation demo on Bazzite, and, in a checkout of the suite, for recording the video tours of the portal and the apps and for converting the suite's category icons. The three pills in its header, Portal video tour, Apps video tour and Convert icons, open those tools. The suite portal lists it on its Development tab. It does not use the suite's shared Python environment.

Install

From this folder, run:

./install.sh

The installer creates an app-specific Python environment under ~/.local/share/media-tool/venv, installs PyQt6, the OBS WebSocket client and Pillow, and adds Media Tool to the desktop app menu and Desktop, using the supplied app icon. It also creates ~/MediaToolRecordings for recordings. It does not use sudo or layer packages into Bazzite. Start the app from the menu or run ~/.local/bin/media-tool. Python 3.11 or newer is required.

Media Tool was called Simple Demo Tool before. Installing it removes an older Simple Demo Tool (its launcher, menu entry, Desktop icon and ~/.local/share/simple-demo-tool). Recordings already in ~/SimpleVideoToolRecordings stay there; new ones go to ~/MediaToolRecordings.

Record a demo

  1. Open OBS, configure a scene with a screen-capture source, and enable Tools → WebSocket Server Settings. For a Wayland session, use Screen Capture (PipeWire) and approve the desktop-sharing prompt.
  2. Open Media Tool and test the OBS connection. It defaults to 127.0.0.1:4455; enter the WebSocket password if OBS authentication is enabled. On a successful connection, the tool sets OBS's recording folder to ~/MediaToolRecordings. This needs OBS WebSocket 5.3 or newer.
  3. Download the portal tarball and SHA256SUMS from the suite's Releases page, verify it with sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS, and extract it into your Downloads folder. Media Tool automatically selects the newest extracted portal release there. Use Find in Downloads to rescan, or Choose folder… if you extracted it elsewhere. For local development, choose the suite repository folder or bc250-bazzite/apps/mtool; the tool uses the checkout's root installer and portal manifest. The portal and selected app must not already be installed for a fresh-install recording.
  4. Start the demo and approve the system-wide stop shortcut if your desktop asks. OBS begins recording and the portal installer opens in a terminal. Media Tool hides, and the portal opens automatically when its installer finishes successfully. The installer may ask for your password when copying files to /opt.
  5. Show the always-included BC-250 Bazzite Test, install the selected optional app using its Install button, then open it using the portal's Open button. Press the shortcut shown in the desktop's shortcut configuration to stop the recording and bring Media Tool back. Some keyboards report the F12 key as End; use the trigger shown by the desktop. Choose Recent recordings… to see the newest videos from OBS's recording folder. Select one and choose Play selected video to play it inside Media Tool. Use the playback controls to pause or seek, and Refresh to update the list.

The system-wide stop shortcut uses the desktop's GlobalShortcuts portal. If your desktop does not support that portal, Media Tool reports the error and does not start recording. The app only changes OBS's recording folder; it does not automate other OBS settings or click through the portal. That keeps the capture source and normal portal warnings under your control.

Record the video tours

The tours are recorded from a checkout of the suite, from the real windows, offscreen: nothing shows on the screen while they record. They go to your Videos folder, with music under them that fades out over the last two seconds (untick Music for a video without sound). Under Suite checkout, check the folder: the tool finds it as for the icons (below). A recording runs in the background; its output shows in the window, Stop ends it, and Play plays the video in Media Tool.

  • Portal video tour records the portal's tour, about two minutes: bc250-portal-tour-v<portal version>.mp4. Tick Also write the copy on the wiki's Portal Tour page to write bc250-bazzite/docs/videos/portal-tour.mp4 and its poster in the checkout too, for you to review and commit.
  • Apps video tour lists every app, each of the two programs of CU Bisect and Cores Bisect apart. Tick the apps (All, None), set the Length (40 seconds by default) and choose Record: each tour takes a few seconds, bc250-<app>-tour-v<version>.mp4. Double-click an app to play its video. What an app reads from the board is real, so watch a video before you publish it.

The tool runs the checkout's bc250-bazzite/tools/record-tour.sh and bc250-bazzite/tools/record-app-tour.sh with the checkout's development environment (.venv-linux, see Development); they need ffmpeg.

Convert the suite's icons

Every app in a category shares the category's icon, kept in a checkout of the suite at 1024, 512, 256 and 128 px (Icons). The Convert icons pill makes them from your own images:

  1. Under Suite checkout, check the folder. The tool finds it by itself when the chosen portal release is a checkout or the tool runs from one; otherwise choose it with Choose folder….
  2. Pick the Category. Its current icons show at each size.
  3. Choose one image under Every size from one image, an image for single sizes, or both: a size picked on its own replaces that size of the whole set. Sizes left empty stay as they are.
  4. Choose Convert and copy to the apps. Each image is scaled to its size and saved as WebP (the 128 px icon as PNG) under the category's names, and copied to every app of the category and its portal tile. Images must be square; any format Pillow reads works.

The changes stay in the checkout for you to review and commit. The tool runs the checkout's bc250-bazzite/tools/sync_icons.py, which does the same from a terminal.

Uninstall

./install.sh --no-desktop-shortcut leaves the Desktop icon out. Run ./install.sh --uninstall from this folder. This removes the launcher, menu entry, Desktop shortcut, bundled icons, and the tool's own files. It leaves ~/MediaToolRecordings and its videos untouched.

Tests

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/python -m pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=offscreen .venv/bin/python -m pytest -q tests

License

GPL-3.0-or-later (GNU GPL v3).