web controller for sonos !! runs on linux ..


well, sort of 😉 Just thought that I would share this with the community - I am running a sonos controller from my web browser under linux ! happy times

I just installed an extension called "arc welder" (https://developer.chrome.com/apps/getstarted_arc) into my chrome browser. Arc welder lets you run android apps in your chrome browser

and guess what ? the 5.3.1 apk of sonos controller for android works a treat

go forth, run your sonos controller under linux. at last.

All features of the android controller seem to work perfectly.

Julian

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37 replies

Userlevel 5
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Nice work. Just tried ARC Welder myself...

On a Chromebook running Chrome OS 41, I can get the 5.3.1 Sonos controller to launch, but it then hangs at the splash screen. Tragic! 😞
I'm running ChromeOS 42,0 (the beta channel) - I'm able to get through the setup-guide, but afterwards the controller can't "find" my Sonos System.

If I check "My Sonos System" in the app, it can only see the one ZP it is associated with... 😕
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I just had success with Fedora 20 running Chrome Version 42.0.2311.39 beta (64-bit).  Here's the steps I took:
  1. installed the ARC Welder chrome extension following the link in Julian's post.
  2. installed the APK Extractor on my Android tablet via the Play Store to get the Sonos APK file, which for all I know may be readily available on the web, but this worked.
  3. copied the Sonos APK file to my Google Drive, from there to my Linux PC (of course any file transfer method works).
  4. launched ARC Welder that prompted for an APK file
  5. loaded the Sonos APK.
  6. went through the typical setup and connected without problems.
  7. did the happy dance - I've been trying to control my Sonos system from Linux for years.
As I don't own a Chromebook I don't know the relationship of ARC Welder on a Chrome browser to ARC Welder on a Chromebook, but based on RDog and Kent's posts it does not seem to be the same.
Userlevel 2
God bless you, guy! Good job, thanks for share!

Sonoooos?!? Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
hi,

great,  nice found !!!   i have just  installed  sonos  5.4 beta  and  it works  great  !!!  I think  that   SONOS  must  bring  out a  Linux  controller.  they  can't still   ignore  that  there  are more and  more  Linux users  that   uses  Sonos. Linux  is not more only a  OS  for geeks and nerds ! A webcontroller will be the  best option I think!
Userlevel 2
Sonos system is linux based. As someone said "It would be nice to give back to the Linux Community what the Linux Community gave to sonos"...
But it's a business/money problem... 
We wish sonos that one day this greed is not passed back... :-)
The Linux Community is not made up of stupid wimps :-0
same thing here with todays latest beta (5.4) on a chromebook (42.0.2311.153 (64-bit)) and ARC-Welder. Sonos-App starts but won't find my up and running sonos system.
He finds it, you see it when you press More options > About my Sonos system. But for some reason he's not acting on it. Man this has got to be a one day job for Sonos to fix it, it would just about run everywhere with a proper APK. 😕
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no luck here either, apk 5.3.1. Chrome OS 42.0.2311.153
Totally works, good enough!! I am missing some icons though but whatevs. Even shows up in my Chrome app launcher after I shut it down!!

http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/sonos-inc/sonos/sonos-5-3-1-android-apk-download/

Latest version as of today is 5.3.1, make sure to check the bottom of this page for latest version number https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sonos.acr
Userlevel 2
It does not work for me - I already fail when selecting the APK file within ARC Welder. There is a spinning wheel, but nothing happens after that, the wheel just keeps on spinning. I tried it with 5.3.1. and 5.4.
Userlevel 5
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Sonos would be better off to make a web based controller that solely relies on message exchange then adding another OS. Don't get me wrong, I am using Linux myself in different flavors (Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and Suse but in the end none of those are used in production.
Userlevel 2
Sonos would be better off to make a web based controller that solely relies on message exchange then adding another OS. Don't get me wrong, I am using Linux myself in different flavors (Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and Suse but in the end none of those are used in production.
They already have a Windows controller - and it used to work with wine until version 3.7, which would be fine for all the Linux users. I suspect the resources to get it going with wine again would be reasonable, or they could offer the windows controller in version 3.6. (one which does not complain it is not up-to-date anymore), because almost everything would probably work. These would be easy fixes. They also have a Mac OS version of the controller which maybe could be adapted.

Even better would be something like a java-based controller for the different platforms. A web based controller does not seem ideal in my opinion - you already need a working setup for that, and I think it would generally be more limited. But opening up their API and inciting some integration in other products would be great too.
Thanks,good way to test apps! I have it working on a acer aspire one with ubuntu 14.04 lts.. With google-chrome and the APK-Downloader extension it is even more easy to setup. For APK-Downloader (2.0.11 + oid) you must own an android device on which you have access to google-play and the right device-id app. After installing the extension you enter a valid device-id and you can access google play store using a browser on your linux or freebsd device. In google-play site next to the button for installing app you will discover a new button "Download APK". .
But i did test this and i'm not happy with the slow response on mouseclicks etc. So i prefer running the sonos windows application using wine. Which is much faster. Also every time you use ARC Welder for some other app, chrome forgets all settings and you have to setup sonos-controller again.
Sonos would be better off to make a web based controller that solely relies on message exchange then adding another OS. Don't get me wrong, I am using Linux myself in different flavors (Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and Suse but in the end none of those are used in production.
Ok, i partly agree but the way i see this is that android is proprietary os that is adapted from and making use of many open source unix, gnu, linux and bsd developing efforts.
There are many many unix, bsd and linux systems that are used in production environments today from which you are also depending. I dare to say that there would be no Internet without.
Sonos wants to protect their development but i think they earned it back at this time  by long and they wil be overtaken by the competition if they do not see linux is a market. Just put the sources plus a precompiled binary of their own in a repo and let people using / install it on Linux. Piece of cake. 
Userlevel 2
Thanks,good way to test apps! I have it working on a acer aspire one with ubuntu 14.04 lts.. With google-chrome and the APK-Downloader extension it is even more easy to setup. For APK-Downloader (2.0.11 + oid) you must own an android device on which you have access to google-play and the right device-id app. After installing the extension you enter a valid device-id and you can access google play store using a browser on your linux or freebsd device. In google-play site next to the button for installing app you will discover a new button "Download APK". .
But i did test this and i'm not happy with the slow response on mouseclicks etc. So i prefer running the sonos windows application using wine. Which is much faster. Also every time you use ARC Welder for some other app, chrome forgets all settings and you have to setup sonos-controller again.

I think the Linux Community should react to this. It could be interesting to hack and block sonos service asking for justice.
Userlevel 2
Sonos would be better off to make a web based controller that solely relies on message exchange then adding another OS. Don't get me wrong, I am using Linux myself in different flavors (Fedora, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and Suse but in the end none of those are used in production.
I think the Linux Community should react to this. It could be interesting to hack and block sonos service asking for justice.
Userlevel 2
I cannot make the windows app under wine working. On some forums people say is no longer possible and it was working with older version of the app (no longer accepted by the sonos system).
Do you have any suggestion?
Yay! Running the latest Sonos app for Android in Arc Welder on Chrome 44 on Ubuntu 15.04 now!
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Yay! Running the latest Sonos app for Android in Arc Welder on Chrome 44 on Ubuntu 15.04 now!
Yay... I also got it working, kind of, under google chrome. nacl_helper makes huge cpu load. Is that what to expect or might I have an issue that has a resolution? This is on a Fedora 22, x86_64 system (with Intel(R) Core(M)2 Duo CPU     T9600  @ 2.80GHz, so not the latest or greatest).
Yay! Running the latest Sonos app for Android in Arc Welder on Chrome 44 on Ubuntu 15.04 now!
Still not working here. It's starting, has A LOT of load and only tackles down my whole Computer, but it won't find my system anymore. 

Sonos: 29.5-90261-1-11.apk
Chrome: Version 43.0.2357.134 (64-bit)

Do you mind posting the exact version of the Sonos-App you are successfully using?
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I am using Sonos_com.sonos.acr_5.3.1_28186172.apk.  I extracted it from my tablet using APK Extractor.
So much Kudos for this find!

Running the SONOS-App successfully on Linux Mint 17.2 now. 🙂
All right, while I was pretty excited earlier, this seems to be not as good as I thought.

Running the Sonos apk with the chrome extension maxed my Core i7 4790.
I was wondering why my fan is so loud and then saw that all 8 cores were running at 100%.
5.5 with Google Chrome 46.0.2490.80 on ubuntu 15.10 x_64 works. only issue is all the cores of the cpu are maxed out.