NewPipe on Linux, Using Android_translation_layer

OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml to Linux@lemmy.ml – 293 points – Install NewPipe on Linux | Flathub
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This is really interesting stuff, found it on Hacker News. It's like WINE, but for Android <-> Linux: https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer/android_translation_layer/

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Wow this is awesome! Waydroid is insecure (outdated, rootful container), slow in development and only sandboxed on Fedora.

But that they take Newpipe... which is notoriously broken as Youtube tries to block everything...

Other apps are

  • OSMAnd~
  • OrganicMaps
  • Grayjay
  • Jerboa, Fedilab, Pixeldroid
  • Amethyst, Voyage

Those are really unique on Android

I'm using NewPipe daily and it doesn't seem broken at all?

You use a VPN?

I use a VPN with NewPipe, no problems. I'm using the NewPipe repo for the app

Ditto here. NewPipe + VPN works fine on my tablet I use as a YouTube machine. The only problems have been when YT messes with stuff to try to block them, and then NewPipe will have it fixed usually within a day. And that doesn't happen as often as people think.

it's worth noting that no actual security problems have been presented that haven't been dealt with, Sandboxing is available on any distro assuming the tools are made availible. Waydroid supports both apparmor and selinux, please report any security issues and tag the maintainers when doing so.

EDIT: you do need to set apparmor into enforce mode manually though.

Interesting, so the Android SELinux sandbox can work with Apparmor?

It's less secure, but the host<->guest seperation is there.

I've been using FreeTube on desktop and it has worked great (with VPN)

Freetube uses Electron. The Flatpak is 240MB in size, the Newpipe + Translation layer is 40MB

It also doesnt bundle an often outdated version of Chromium, as found in Electron

But I tried Newpipe Flatpak and it was blocked totally. May have been because of my VPN though. Freetube had the same issues.

Grayjay is king at block circumvention

Good to know, thanks. If the FreeTube flatpak is working for me, I might as well try the Newpipe one if it's that much better. I guess I just assumed that the translation layer would add CPU overhead.

I'll have to look into Grayjay. Is there a flatpak? I'm on immutable, so flatpak is much preferred.

Newpipe flatpak is totally broken XD

but it is more efficient, the translation layer is not an issue.

Actually, I am not sure what LocalSend and ConverterNOW use but those also look kinda like Android apps with GTK decorations.

Grayjay is android-only but a really nice cross-platform player. It is a framework with plugins, for nearly all streaming services... apart from Peertube??

I went from newpipe to tubular since it comes with sponsorblock, but iirc the backend is the same.

No VPN or anything, it works great.

Yes with no VPN it will work easier

It's most likely watching Youtube with your VPN that's broken then, not NewPipe. Youtube implemented Captchas for IPs that generate a lot of traffic/a lot of people are using. That's how they are trying to kill frontends like invidious that proxy the requests. NewPipe by default uses your own IP so it doesn't have that problem. If you use a VPN IP that a lot of others are using too, you'll get that same problem though.

Yes I assume this increases many issues.

This might also explain why sometimes the one, sometimes the other app (desktop vs phone) is broken

Which version of Newpipe are you using? You'll want to use their latest release repository rather than the 'stable' one, that seems to make it work.

Newpipe works perfectly fine with only small issues sometimes. OrganicMaps is available on flathub

The OrganicMaps for "regular" Linux is very different from the Android app though. Completely different UI tech (Qt vs native Android widgets) and lacks important things like turn-by-turn navigation.

in what situation would you need turn by turn navigation on Linux???

As the rule of thumb with FOSS projects, it has a horrible name

Time to rename it to one of the very creative FOSS project names

  • yet another something (YAS)
  • something is not other thing (SINOT)
  • OpenSomething, FreeSomething, LibreSomething
  • Something
  • Periodic table
  • Somethingify (this one is new)

Kudos to devs though. This is awesome

  • KDE Advanced Something Editor (KASE)
  • Gsomething
  • Some random word. The worst ones I can think of are simultaneously Kleopatra and Seahorse. Guess what they do.
  • "It's actually the name of an Indonesian fruit commonly eaten at celebrations..."

Yeah it's not open source unless the title is a garbage fire.

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Interesting concept, if it gets good enough I hope ubuntu touch adopts this because I'm not a big fan of waydroid.

It's still really basic, but has loads of potential, Unforunately it has a hard requirement on GTK, otherwise there are a few things that would have been nice for greater AX86 in general, for instance they have mediacodec->vaapi support, something ax86 has... struggled with in the past. but we can't use it since we can't use gtk.

Ubuntu Touch can't use GTK? Why not?

what does Ubuntu touch have to do with this? I explicitly refered to the greater ax86 ecosystem.

You were responding to a comment talking about Ubuntu Touch. You then talking about "we" without any explaining of who you meant made me assume you meant Ubuntu Touch users.

ah my bad, I had thought I made it clear, I mean the greater android x86, Blisslabs projects like Bliss OS and waydroid, other projects like WSL2, tho that is dead... some chromeOS stuff too.

This is great. This gives me hope for Linux mobile 🙏🏽

They really shot themselves in the foot by going straight to phones.

The better way would have been to work on tablets first and working out all the bugs on larger devices with a limited feature set before moving into phones with the attendant issues of regional cell bands and restrictions.

tablets (especially ones that could be flashed with Linux, i.e. not iPads) are way less common than smartphones, so you get fewer devices to choose from for testing, fewer users who can run it, report bugs, and support the project, and less interest in general.

The hardware isn't so much of a problem as there are companies who can make or source compatible tablets like the PineTab2 and the PineNote.

It's making the software compatible with a lower power mobile device and learning what needs to fixed.

It would have been much easier to deal with getting a tablet up and running before dealing with getting a mobile device functional.

Making the small steps from laptop to tablet then to phone would have saved them a lot of grief and software mistakes.

What are the chances of everyone interested in this project already having a tablet? I don't own any, and I certainly wouldn't be going out to buy one just to test running Linux on it. I do have multiple old phones I could turn into development test devices however. Anything is better than nothing.

[Genuine] Okay, why when Freetube exists though?

People who are used to NewPipe can use it

Also this is more of a testament to Android on Linux rather than NewPipe on Linux

This is not about Newpipe itself but more that fact that this is an Android app ran on desktop Linux, without any containers like Waydroid does. This is like Wine, but for Android apps.

FreeTube doesn't always have 4k. I don't remember which format, but a video has to be a certain format to show as 4k. Majority of videos that are shot in 4k show as only 1080p on FreeTube. I welcome new pipe to linux and will actually be using it

Well, good news the newest update to Freetube now adds 4K+ support since they changed the library used to get the videos or something. I have tested it and the video says 4K and seems to be that. Feel free to correct me if you try the latest update and find any discrepancies.

That'd be great then. Will be checking soon. Thank you

It has indeed been fixed, and I love it. Thank you

finally a non electron yt client, i also have another question does sober use the same method.

Electron apps suck and should die but for a YouTube player it seems appropriate

Man Electron takes so much resources tho

really buggy on fedora kinoite

Well yes, it's still early days and very much WIP. But the fact it works at all is amazing and shows what can be done with more work.

I wonder how does it work? New pipe is originally a portarit application for Android.

It translates the Android API to Linux desktop-compatible calls, just like Wine does for Windows apps.

Newpipe works great on tablets too, a lot of Android apps have a landscape mode

It won't show a file picker for importing subscriptions so rip