Add local HTTP server for audio streaming on Linux by BlueManCZ · Pull Request #923 · martpie/museeks

BlueManCZ · 2026-02-10T13:56:29Z

This commit introduces a local HTTP server for streaming audio on Linux as a workaround for WebKitGTK's asset protocol limitations with media streaming and Range requests. Includes a stream_server module and necessary changes to TS and Tauri integration.

I asked the Claude Opus AI agent to analyze this issue, and it came up with a working solution. This is its own review:

On Linux, Museeks uses WebKitGTK as its webview engine, which uses GStreamer for audio decoding. Tauri's asset:// protocol doesn't support proper media streaming on WebKitGTK (tauri-apps/tauri#3725). The previous workaround fetched entire audio files as blobs and created blob URLs, but GStreamer can't properly seek within blob URLs, causing:

FLAC: plays initial buffered data then stops (no seeking for more data)

MP3: VBR seeking is broken, causing random position jumps

Fix

Replaced the blob URL workaround with a local HTTP server (using axum) that serves audio files with proper Content-Type, Accept-Ranges, and HTTP Range request support. GStreamer's HTTP source element (souphttpsrc) handles regular HTTP streaming perfectly.

I didn't test these changes on Mac or Windows, but on Linux this is night and day type of improvement.

Fixes: #909, #912 any maybe some other related playback issues?

This commit introduces a local HTTP server for streaming audio on Linux as a workaround for WebKitGTK's asset protocol limitations with media streaming and Range requests. Includes a `stream_server` module and necessary changes to TS and Tauri integration.

martpie · 2026-02-10T16:41:37Z

omg that's amazing, I was looking into this right now.

IIRC, I think this issue was also happening on mac with some files but I cannot reproduce it, I need to double check. If that's the case, we may want to open this via a custom setting and for all operating systems.

Let me try this branch once I get home.

martpie · 2026-02-11T12:11:54Z

Just tested it, it works amazingly, thanks so much for doing that. I was really afraid I´d need to move the playback to the Rust side (tbh, maybe I'll still have to do it one day).

I'll review the code once I have a bit more time. You can ignore the macOS failure, it's expected as it uses my own certificate to bundle the app.

BlueManCZ · 2026-02-11T12:17:13Z

I was really afraid I´d need to move the playback to the Rust side

If you want me to prompt this and share what Opus would came up with, we can do that. 😄

martpie · 2026-02-11T13:07:46Z

hahahaha I have to say Claude has been working on a few PRs like #916

BlueManCZ · 2026-02-11T13:11:01Z

I see, nice! 👍

martpie

A bunch of nits, I'm ready to merge it as-is if you don't have the bandwidth to handle those changes :)

martpie · 2026-02-15T16:02:57Z

src-tauri/src/plugins/stream_server.rs

+}
+
+fn content_type_for_extension(ext: &str) -> Option<&'static str> {
+    match ext {


Can we keep that in sync with

museeks/src-tauri/src/libs/database.rs

Line 12 in 6656f95

pub const SUPPORTED_TRACKS_EXTENSIONS: [&str; 9] = [

?

Basically, if an extension is added there, this function should break saying a case is not covered. This may require changing the type of the constant though.

I put this into the database.rs and derived SUPPORTED_AUDIO_FORMATS.

martpie · 2026-02-15T16:03:56Z

src-tauri/src/plugins/stream_server.rs

+    headers.insert(header::CONTENT_TYPE, content_type.parse().unwrap());
+    headers.insert(header::CONTENT_LENGTH, body.len().to_string().parse().unwrap());
+    headers.insert(header::ACCEPT_RANGES, "bytes".parse().unwrap());
+    headers.insert(header::ACCESS_CONTROL_ALLOW_ORIGIN, "*".parse().unwrap());


Not sure this header is required is it?

Yes, can be removed.

martpie · 2026-02-15T16:08:06Z

src-tauri/src/main.rs

+    // On Linux, start a local HTTP server for audio streaming.
+    // WebKitGTK's asset protocol doesn't support media streaming properly.
+    #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
+    let stream_server_port = plugins::stream_server::start();


any way this logic can be moved within the init of the plugin? I understand it's a sync init.

See how I did it for the DB:

museeks/src-tauri/src/plugins/db.rs

Line 467 in 6656f95

tauri::async_runtime::spawn(async move {

It may create weird rust errors though, if it's too hard to change or fix the errors correctly, feel free to leave them like that, it's okeeey-ish.

Moved to plugin

martpie · 2026-02-15T16:11:22Z

src-tauri/Cargo.toml

 walkdir = "2.5.0"

+[target.'cfg(target_os = "linux")'.dependencies]
+axum = "0.7"


genuine question, how heavy is this? are there other minimalist-yet-ergonomic http servers here? not a big deal.

Based on what Opus analyzed it is very light in this case. It only added 5 new crates to the lock file (axum, axum-core, matchit, serde_path_to_error, httpdate). Everything else axum depends on (hyper, http, tokio, tower, serde, bytes, futures-util, etc.) was already in the tree via Tauri. So the actual added weight is minimal.

The main alternatives would be:

warp - similar weight (also built on hyper/tokio), but its filter-based API is less ergonomic for this use case

tiny_http - truly minimal, but synchronous (doesn't use tokio), so it'd need its own thread pool for concurrent requests

Raw hyper - zero extra crates, but significantly more boilerplate for routing, query parsing, and response building

Raw tokio::net::TcpListener - zero deps, but manual HTTP parsing is error-prone

Given that axum reuses almost the entire existing dependency tree and only adds 5 small crates, it's a good trade-off for correct, maintainable code.

…y initialization

martpie · 2026-02-16T15:45:36Z

Let me merge that, I think I may transform this into a Setting for people to opt-in, regardless of what OS they use, and there are a couple of nit I may do.

Thank you, hopefully I can release that this week, if not, when you can build from sources in the meantime haha (npm run tauri build).

* Add local HTTP server for audio streaming on Linux This commit introduces a local HTTP server for streaming audio on Linux as a workaround for WebKitGTK's asset protocol limitations with media streaming and Range requests. Includes a `stream_server` module and necessary changes to TS and Tauri integration. * Refactor stream server plugin: centralize MIME type logic and simplify initialization

martpie reviewed Feb 15, 2026

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martpie mentioned this pull request Feb 15, 2026

Allow users to enable/disable blob playback #816

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BlueManCZ added 2 commits February 16, 2026 09:09

Refactor stream server plugin: centralize MIME type logic and simplif…

645b389

…y initialization

Merge branch 'master' into fix-linux-playback

83f4163

martpie changed the base branch from master to fix-linux-playback February 16, 2026 15:46

martpie merged commit 7a1f0ca into martpie:fix-linux-playback Feb 16, 2026
5 of 6 checks passed

martpie mentioned this pull request Feb 18, 2026

Large files playback stutters on Linux #909

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