Repository: localsend/localsend

Issue #29: Unable to discover local devices when using Localsend on Chromebook
Created: 2023-01-26T13:26:12Z
Hi! I just found your app and it's awesome. I have a Chromebook and an Android phone, yet sometimes Nearby Share just won't work so I will use some other apps to transfer files between my devices, and your app is a great fit.
However, it seems that when I use the Android version of Localsend on my Chromebook, it won't find my Android phone, even though they are connected to the same local network. But if I manually enter my Android phone's IP address, it works and I can send files from Chrome OS to my phone. Also, the Localsend App on my phone is able to discover my Chromebook.
I suspect the way Android apps work on Chrome OS is causing this issue. Basically, Chrome OS runs Android Apps in a seperated container, along with its seperated network interfaces. From the documentation of Localsend's protocol, the discovery is implemented by sending request to all local IP addresses, yet the App on Chrome OS has a different subnet compared to my Android phone. (But this doesn't explain why my phone can discover my Chromebook. Perhaps some Chrome OS magic?)
Here is a screenshot of Localsend running on Chrome OS.
(It shows a subnet of 100.115.92.0/24, yet my local network has a subnet of 10.0.0.0/24)

Since this is a technical limitation of Chrome OS, currently I don't have any real practical solutions. One possible way is to include  a network subnet setting panel, which can override the default subnet provided by system API, and send the discover requests to that subnet.
Hope this feedback helps.

Duplicate issue #1604: Doesn't work on chromeos (flex)
Created: 2024-08-04T13:29:39Z
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I can install and run localsend on chromeos flex (version 126.0.6478.222), but no devices show up and on no other device (tested both windows and android) does the chromeos flex device show up.
First time running localsend some error showed shortly (I believe about network socket something, but that's all I remembered). Restarted localsend, reinstalling it and shutting down linux through the chromeos flex terminal app all didn't make the error reappear.
Describe the solution you'd like
Localsend works on chromeosflex
Describe alternatives you've considered
No response
Additional context
I saw some mention of this at #1421, which mentioned this..

But if LocalSend doesn't work properly on your Chromebook even after successfully installing it; I don't think we can help you as Flutter (and thus LocalSend) doesn't have any support for ChromeOS. Furthermore LocalSend relies on libraries and APIs that are specific to the Windows/Linux/android/apple platforms and which might not exist on Chrome OS.

I don't see how this would be a problem, as chromeos (flex) has a linux development environment feature that makes it possible to install the .deb version of localsend. As in, it is an entire linux system, so "specific to linux" doesn't seem to make sense.

Closing comment (2024-09-17T11:53:52Z): Might be related to #29

Seems indeed that I have reached the same conclusion as in that issue. Only difference is that I installed from .deb not an Android app (ChromeOS Flex doesn't support Android apps). The .deb version requires port forwarding to be able to send from another device to the ChromeOS Flex device, but the other way around works regardless of port forwarding.