Error downloading ares-deps when shaders are wanted

[nathanzachary]

Describe the bug
I am working on a Gentoo ebuild for ares, and in it, I have conditional code allowing the user to choose whether or not to include librashaders/slang-shaders. When the shaders are not desired, the following flags are passed:

-DARES_ENABLE_LIBRASHADER=no 
-DARES_BUNDLE_SHADERS=no
-DARES_SKIP_DEPS=yes

When the shaders ARE desired, the following flags are passed:

-DARES_ENABLE_LIBRASHADER=yes 
-DARES_BUNDLE_SHADERS=yes 
-DARES_SKIP_DEPS=no

The build completes successfully when the shaders are not included, but fails when they are.

Additional context
The build failure when shaders are included may be a bit of a red herring, but here it is:

>>> Configuring source in /var/tmp/portage/games-emulation/ares-145/work/ares-145 ...
 * Source directory (CMAKE_USE_DIR): "/var/tmp/portage/games-emulation/ares-145/work/ares-145"
 * Build directory  (BUILD_DIR):     "/var/tmp/portage/games-emulation/ares-145/work/ares-145_build"
cmake -C /var/tmp/portage/games-emulation/ares-145/work/ares-145_build/gentoo_common_config.cmake -G Ninja -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DARES_ENABLE_CHD=no -DARES_BUILD_OFFICIAL=ON -DARES_BUILD_LOCAL=OFF -DARES_ENABLE_LIBRASHADER=yes -DARES_BUNDLE_SHADERS=yes -DARES_SKIP_DEPS=no -DENABLE_CCACHE=OFF -DARES_UNITY_CORES=ON -DARES_ENABLE_OPENAL=no -DARES_ENABLE_OSS=OFF -DARES_ENABLE_ALSA=yes -DARES_ENABLE_PULSEAUDIO=no -DARES_ENABLE_AO=no -DARES_ENABLE_SDL=yes -DARES_ENABLE_UDEV=yes -DUSE_QT5=OFF -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=/var/tmp/portage/games-emulation/ares-145/work/ares-145_build/gentoo_toolchain.cmake /var/tmp/portage/games-emulation/ares-145/work/ares-145
loading initial cache file /var/tmp/portage/games-emulation/ares-145/work/ares-145_build/gentoo_common_config.cmake
-- The C compiler identification is GNU 15.1.1
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 15.1.1
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-gcc - skipped
-- Detecting C compile features
-- Detecting C compile features - done
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-g++ - skipped
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- Skipping Ccache - set ENABLE_CCACHE to ON to enable Ccache
-- Checking if interprocedural optimization is supported
-- Checking if interprocedural optimization is supported - success
-- Setting up Pre-Built ares-deps (universal)
-- Downloading https://github.com/ares-emulator/ares-deps/releases/download/2025-05-22/ares-deps-linux-universal.tar.xz
CMake Error at cmake/common/dependencies_common.cmake:59 (file):
  file DOWNLOAD cannot compute hash on failed download

    status: [6;"Could not resolve hostname"]
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  cmake/linux/dependencies.cmake:18 (_check_dependencies)
  cmake/linux/dependencies.cmake:22 (_check_dependencies_linux)
  cmake/linux/defaults.cmake:5 (include)
  CMakeLists.txt:8 (include)


-- Downloading https://github.com/ares-emulator/ares-deps/releases/download/2025-05-22/ares-deps-linux-universal.tar.xz - Failure
CMake Error at cmake/common/dependencies_common.cmake:65 (message):
  Unable to download
  https://github.com/ares-emulator/ares-deps/releases/download/2025-05-22/ares-deps-linux-universal.tar.xz,
  failed with error: "Could not resolve hostname"
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  cmake/linux/dependencies.cmake:18 (_check_dependencies)
  cmake/linux/dependencies.cmake:22 (_check_dependencies_linux)
  cmake/linux/defaults.cmake:5 (include)
  CMakeLists.txt:8 (include)


-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

The download URL is reachable from the host performing the build. Additionally, should it be updated to use the newer release build '2025-07-14' instead of the one referenced ('2025-05-22')?

Thank you again for your time and assistance.

Cheers,
Nathan Zachary

[jcm93]

The download URL is reachable from the host performing the build.

What method did you use to confirm that this is true? If the CMake download command returns that it cannot resolve the host, that generally means that the build environment has restricted network access.

Additionally, should it be updated to use the newer release build '2025-07-14' instead of the one referenced ('2025-05-22')?

If you are building ares v145, it will use the dependencies from May, because those are the ones intended to accompany that release. If you are building a commit from after the deps were updated, or current master, it will use the current deps from 7/14. The version used is dictated by the deps.json file.

[nathanzachary]

You were correct about the build environment being sandboxed, so there was no network access. I'm able to add the file during the fetch phase (pre-build), and that works. Now I need to figure out how I can 1) bypass the attempt to download the deps archive again during the build phase, and 2) a more automated way for the ebuild to determine the release needed from deps.json.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction and for the continued help. The ebuild is nearly finished, so I'll be able to make it available in Gentoo.

Cheers,
Nathan Zachary

[bsdcode]

You can also look at how other systems package ares:

• Arch: https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=ares-emu
• Nix: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/nixos-unstable/pkgs/by-name/ar/ares/package.nix
• FreeBSD: https://cgit.freebsd.org/ports/tree/emulators/ares/Makefile

The general idea is to also provide a separate package for the slang-shaders (I don't know if Gentoo already packages the shaders separately) and use this as a dependency for your ares package. Use ARES_SKIP_DEPS=on and ARES_BUNDLE_SHADERS=off unconditionally in your build script and set a symbolic link from the contents of the shaders package to the shared datadir of ares, e.g. /usr/local/share/ares/Shaders on FreeBSD.

This has also the advantage that the slang-shaders can be updated independently of ares.

[nathanzachary]

Thank you for the suggestion. I had originally made my ebuild for ares with a dependency on librashader (which I was also working on), but thought the bundled solution may be a better one given the very large number of crates pulled in when building librashader. I'll weigh my options, but appreciate all the feedback.

Cheers,
Nathan Zachary