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Dzurkel v0.8.0

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@EdinUser EdinUser released this 19 Oct 18:26
v0.8.0
3af0772

Dzurkel 0.8.0 — Now with video previews

Status: release validation passed, installers are attached, and 0.8.0 has
been promoted from prerelease to the latest stable release.

Dzurkel brings Quick Look-style file previews to Linux, with integration for
Dolphin, Nautilus and Thunar. Select a file and press Space after enabling the
shortcut in Dzurkel Settings.

Version 0.8.0 adds video playback, joining images, PDFs, documents,
spreadsheets, e-books, source code and audio in one reusable preview window.
Play, pause, seek where supported, and carry your mute/volume choices between
music and video. Common containers include MP4, MKV, WebM, MOV and AVI;
playback depends on installed multimedia backends and codecs.

Media is read incrementally, with bounded source read-ahead for slow shares,
without creating a whole-file temporary snapshot. Dzurkel remains read-only,
with optional backends for additional capabilities.

Native package targets are Fedora 44, Debian 13 and current Arch Linux.
Installers are available below following successful release validation. See the
detailed validation limits before choosing a package.

Changes since 0.7.1

  • Preview MP4/M4V, MKV, WebM, MOV, AVI, MPG/MPEG, OGV and WMV in an
    aspect-preserving video view. Playback depends on installed Qt media backends
    and codecs; a filename or container does not guarantee decoding support.
  • Audio and video autoplay with sound and share the running session's mute and
    volume choices. Play/pause uses P; Space/Escape continue to dismiss.
    Timeline controls support seeking when the source/backend permits it.
  • Actual media tracks choose the music or video view without reopening the
    source, preserving audio-only MP4 support and music cover-art presentation.
  • Local files and mounted shares use the existing isolated file-reading helper.
    A fixed 512 KiB read-ahead window reduces repeated filesystem reads, while
    IPC transfers stay at most 64 KiB. Dzurkel creates no whole-file media snapshot.
  • Loading waits for a valid video frame. Slow reads and seeks receive explicit
    feedback, and closing/changing previews cancels source access independently
    of its read deadline. Old playback errors cannot replace a newer preview.
  • Incompatible media adapters now report their interface mismatch and the
    need to reinstall a matching application/adapter set, rather than “Unknown error.”
  • Plain text wraps to the preview width by default. Wrap lines in the
    toolbar remembers the user's choice without modifying whitespace or files.
  • Settings adds OS compatibility…, showing the build's requirements and
    distinguishing reviewed dependency candidates from validated OS support.
  • Debian packages recommend the audio/video runtime libraries alongside
    highlighting. Development SDKs are needed only when building; the adapters
    remain optional at runtime and baseline previews still work without them.

Downloads and upgrading

The validated runtime installers and checksum manifest are attached to the
GitHub release.

System Installer
Fedora 44, x86_64 dzurkel-0.8.0-1.fc44.x86_64.rpm
Debian 13, amd64 dzurkel_0.8.0-1_amd64.deb
Current Arch Linux, x86_64 dzurkel-0.8.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst 
# Fedora
sudo dnf install ./dzurkel-0.8.0-1.fc44.x86_64.rpm

# Debian 13
sudo apt install ./dzurkel_0.8.0-1_amd64.deb

# Arch Linux: update first, then install
sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -U ./dzurkel-0.8.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Download SHA256SUMS alongside the installer and verify with
sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS. Packages are unsigned; checksums
verify integrity and are not signatures. No Dzurkel update repository is provided.

Quit the resident Dzurkel process before upgrading and restart it afterward so
the executable and optional adapters match. Preferences and integration backups
are preserved. A user-local development executable can shadow a system package;
follow the installation guide when switching between them. Dolphin Space setup
still requires Dolphin 26.04 or newer. Ubuntu is a development-test platform,
not a release DEB target; choose a package built for your distribution/release.

Validation and known limits

Development validation includes the full local CTest suite, focused media
ASan/UBSan checks, generated silent video and audio-only MP4 fixtures, front/tail
MP4 indexes, MKV/WebM playback, delayed reads, seek-to-end, repeated teardown and
missing/incompatible adapter checks. Read-only local and mounted-CIFS samples
passed integrated native KDE Wayland checks; an actual compositor capture was
visually inspected. See the testing record for the versioned release checks.

Per-read latency injection improved seek behavior with bounded read-ahead, but
does not establish cold-cache bandwidth performance or real network-disconnection
recovery. Codec/backend coverage, actual missing-audio-device playback, full
GNOME/XFCE video acceptance and hard decoder/GPU memory bounds remain separate
checks. Automatic reconnect/resume, playlists and advanced subtitle/track
controls are outside this release. Public HTTP/live-stream URLs are not added.

The 0.8.0 release workflow
passed package builds and tests, all three clean install/removal checks, the
Debian 12 baseline and the native GNOME gate. Installers were attached before
stable promotion. These checks retain the desktop/codec limitations above;
passing CI does not establish every hardware or desktop configuration.

See video behavior,
testing,
installation
and runtime compatibility.

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