hongguo-drama-linux

Overview

Hongguo short dramas finally get a ready-to-run Linux desktop client: hongguo-drama-linux is an independent project continuously developed by yxt02 on top of jackotom/hongguo-drama, distributed for Linux x86_64 with search, online playback, local downloads, and resume all handled locally. FFmpeg and the runtime ship inside the package — no Node.js required. GPL-3.0 licensed, currently at version 1.74.9.

It prepares an H.264-compatible format before playing by default, so no more waiting for a black screen to transcode manually.

Item	Detail
Positioning	Unofficial Hongguo Drama desktop client for Linux
Stack	Electron + Vite with bundled FFmpeg
Platform	Linux x86_64 (installs to ~/.local/opt/hongguo-drama, no sudo)
HD sourcing	App's highest available quality by default, or pinned 1080p / 720p with size validation
License	GPL-3.0, upstream jackotom/hongguo-drama

Download and Install

1. Grab hongguo-drama--linux-x64.tar.gz from the latest release; source packages and SHA256SUMS.txt are provided alongside
2. Verify with sha256sum --ignore-missing -c SHA256SUMS.txt
3. Extract and run 红果短剧.sh (the launcher handles Chromium sandbox quirks on some distros; running the binary inside app/ directly is not recommended)
4. Run install.sh to add a menu entry and the hongguo command

Daily Viewing

Feature	Usage
Find dramas	Browse categories, search titles, or paste share links and drama IDs
HD sourcing	App's highest available quality by default, or pinned 1080p / 720p
Compatible playback	H.264-compatible format prepared before playing
Resume	Episodes and positions saved per drama and per season
Auto cache	Keeps the current episode plus 5 before and after; evicted cache is cleaned
Batch download	Downloads remaining unfinished episodes, skipping completed, queued, and locked ones
Continuous play	Auto next episode, speed, fullscreen, and picture adjustments
Tray	X exits fully, or minimize to tray to keep running

Actual quality depends on the source: some episodes labeled 1080p are really 640×360 — the app validates by size, shows the reason, and never auto-downgrades; transcoding cannot turn low-res material into HD.

Automatic Season Switching

After opening a drama, the app searches for other seasons from the same source in the background and lists them right under the title — click to switch. Title forms supported include Title1, Title一, Season 1/Part 2 in Chinese, Season 2, S3, and full-width parenthesized numerals; each season resumes independently, and matching filters out other titles and cross-source entries. Recognition is title-based and can misjudge; irregular titles can be pinned manually via Fix Season Info.

H.264 Compatibility and Updates

• Transcode policy: keeps source dimensions, reuses valid caches, and serially preps nearby episodes; the in-player switch for this drama: compatible decoding → back to auto reverts just the current drama and is remembered
• One-shot update: Settings → Check Updates → Update and restart; downloads the full directory package, verifies SHA256 and version, replaces in place, and restores the old version with a .previous backup on failure; watch history, settings, and manual downloads outside the app directory survive; terminal equivalent: hongguo --update --restart
• Upgrading old versions: extract the new build and run the upgrade script, which closes the old program and replaces it — no uninstall needed
• Verification: 46 playback regressions, Linux packaging, and full in-place update checks pass; the release workflow runs tests, packaging, and update-package checks before publishing installers, source, and checksums