Xow: libusb buggy

[sevenautumns]

Checklist

• Checked the nixpkgs master branch
• Checked the nixpkgs pull requests

Project name

nix search name: xow

Notify maintainers

maintainers: @jansol

Note for maintainers

Xow itself is not out-of-date, but the used libusb is known to be buggy.
There are multiple reports of high cpu usage which can be fixed by using the latest libusb:

• High CPU load with libusb-1.0.24 medusalix/xow#141
• High CPU usage medusalix/xow#159
• xow uses up 20% of my CPU constantly, even if controller is off medusalix/xow#169
• Uses 100% one CPU thread medusalix/xow#181

I was able to use the official libusb repo within a flake for circumventing the CPU issue
sevenautumns/xow@5e469a3

[Mindavi]

This depends on upstream releasing 1.0.25, which they said they'd do soon-ish. So I guess it's best to wait for that? I don't think the patch would apply cleanly, but haven't tried.

[sevenautumns]

I see, then I'll have to use my patch until then.

For others who might run into this problem.
If you are using flakes you may use my repo as an input

{ inputs = { libusb.url = "github:steav005/xow/0fe9cd9"; };

And override the used libusb (but only for xow)

{
  nixpkgs.config.packageOverrides = pkgs: {
    xow = pkgs.xow.overrideAttrs (orig: {
      version = "pre-1.0.25";
      buildInputs = [ inputs.libusb.packages.x86_64-linux.libusb ];
    });
  };
}

This way only the used libusb is touched

[Mindavi]

They are getting close to a release: libusb/libusb#777

[ttrei]

libusb-1.0.25 was released

https://github.com/libusb/libusb/releases/tag/v1.0.25

[Mindavi]

I made a PR, but haven't done any testing yet. If anyone has some spare time, testing would be appreciated.

[Mindavi]

#160839

Update was released and packaged. Hopefully this solves your issue and the need to carry your own overlay/patches. Reopen if there's still issues (you may have to wait until it's through staging).