Edit: this patch has been merged into OpenBoard 1.7.0, so this issue is closed.
- OpenBoard home page
- Download my patch
- Github
- Github discussion
- Slackbuild (Slackware users)
These days I'm forced again to do lessons from remote. My school asked me to refer to Google Meet for the videoconferences and one thing I disliked was the Jam interactive whiteboard, which is completely inadequate for scientific subjects. On the other hand OpenBoard, my favourite board tool that I successfully use with Zoom, seemed not to be recognized as an application to be shared, because it runs fullscreen.
After some googleing I found a patch from this guy (I big thank for his work!) which forces OpenBoard to run in a window, but at the cost of passing a variable at compilation time. I modified the logic of that patch so that a user can set how OpenBoard will run just by modifying an option in the config file. The "run windowed" feature is disabled by default, so it will not bother those teachers who are already familiar with the interface, but it can be easily switched on by advanced users.
To get OpenBoard running in a window just switch this option to true in the /opt/openboard/etc/OpenBoard.config file
[App] RunInWindow=true
Each user can do the same by overriding this setting in his/her personal ~/.local/share/OpenBoard/OpenBoardUser.config file.
Installation steps
The following prerequisites must be already installed: libpaper libass x264 libfdk-aac ffmpeg quazip-qt5 qt5-webkit. My patch is for the 1.6.3 version.
wget https://notes.sagredo.eu/files/hacks/openboard/run-in-a-window.patch wget https://github.com/OpenBoard-org/OpenBoard/archive/refs/tags/v1.6.3.tar.gz tar xzf v1.6.3.tar.gz cd OpenBoard-1.6.3 patch -p1 < ../run-in-a-window.patch qmake-qt5 OpenBoard.pro -spec linux-g++ make make install
You may want to reproduce these steps when building the package for your specific distro.
Comments
Such a feature should be implented in the official version
Urquanmaster June 20, 2023 18:15 CET
Could you send them a patch, so that they integrate it in the official version?
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Such a feature should be implented in the official version
Roberto Puzzanghera Urquanmaster June 20, 2023 18:19 CET
I already posted my patch on their github.
Here is the pull request. It has been merged on the 1.7-dev branch on Sep 27, 2021
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Somebody tried it on Mac OSX?
Vittorio Scarano May 27, 2022 07:25 CET
Just wanted to know if somebody tried (and succeeded) on Mac OSX Monterey. And if there are specific instructions.. Thanks
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Somebody tried it on Mac OSX?
Roberto Puzzanghera Vittorio Scarano May 27, 2022 08:46 CET
They added it in the new branch: https://github.com/OpenBoard-org/OpenBoard/issues/340#issuecomment-1087455729, so you can grab the latest GitHub 1.7-dev and compile
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OpenBoardW
ellzee August 11, 2021 11:08 CET
Hi,
I could not manage to run OpenBoardW on Debian 10.4.
The command
is not running on Debian 10.4.
So no make, no install ... no OpenBoardW ...
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OpenBoardW
Roberto Puzzanghera ellzee August 11, 2021 11:11 CET
what error do you get?
Unfortunately I can't test it on Debian myself
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Hi
User May 25, 2021 13:12 CET
Hi, thanks for your work.
Should it works on windows 10? I found OpenBoard.config on C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenBoard\etc and added the line RunInWindow=true, because "RuninWindow=" wasn't there under [App], but still, nothing changes.
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Openboard binaries for windows
Roberto Puzzanghera User May 25, 2021 13:59 CET
You have to patch and compile the source code.
You can find binaries for windows here http://webdiis.unizar.es/~spd/openboard. The patch applied is a little bit different from mine but it has the "run windowed" feature already active and hard coded.
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Running OpenBoardW
ToniMe March 15, 2021 08:49 CET
Hi!
Please could you describe the exact steps and commands to be done in order to apply this patch and make OpenBoard work in a separate window on Ubuntu 20.04. I have read the discussion and many related articles and still haven't found out how to do this.
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Running OpenBoardW
Jaroslav Krejčí ToniMe March 26, 2021 14:44 CET
Here you can find two builds Openboard which run on a separate window for Ubuntu 20.04 64bit:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1d1ClbmZDifC72fMbcjDhwRlsb9qTxTLH?usp=sharing
openboard_ubuntu_20.04_1.6.1-a.1102w is builded with patch by Roberto Puzzanghera
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Running OpenBoardW
Roberto Puzzanghera Jaroslav Krejčí March 26, 2021 14:51 CET
Thank you, appreciated
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Running OpenBoardW
Roberto Puzzanghera ToniMe March 15, 2021 15:07 CET
Hi, I added the installation steps in the page above. The patch has to be installed on top of the RC version.
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Running OpenBoardW
Jose Antonio Roberto Puzzanghera August 18, 2021 21:17 CET
Hi Roberto,
I wish I could be able to use your solution to run OB, but I simply don't understand what I am supossed to do. I suggest you to take some time and write a proper tutorial so every person interested in your fix is able to use it.
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Running OpenBoardW
Roberto Puzzanghera Jose Antonio August 18, 2021 21:25 CET
Hi Jose, I feel your frustration and I know how it can be without a nice product like OB.
The installation steps above describe what to do for a linux administrator, not for a linux user. Some skills of linux administration are required. Explaining what's behind those commands is beyond the scope of these pages. I'm so sorry, I haven't got the time.
For an immediate use of OB in "windowed mode" I suggest to browse this page http://webdiis.unizar.es/~spd/openboard/ to download the installer for some linux distributions and for windows
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Running OpenBoardW
Jose Antonio Roberto Puzzanghera August 18, 2021 21:35 CET
Thank you very much for your response
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