Introduction

In this guide I will explain all the steps needed to get OpenBullet 2 up and running on your system. There are two official clients for OpenBullet 2, choose the one that better suits your needs.

Web client (cross-platform)

This is a cross-platform web-based client that can be configured to be accessed remotely. It is also mobile-friendly.

Running a precompiled build

If you don’t want to mess with docker and don’t want to compile your own build, you can use the latest automatically compiled build available on GitHub. First of all visit this page and download the OpenBullet2.zip file (do not select the source code option). Once you downloaded it, unzip it to a folder of your choice. Now it’s time to install the asp.net core runtime. You can find instructions on how to install it on your system at the link provided. When you’re done, you can test if it got installed properly by opening a command prompt and typing dotnet --version, which should output a version number like 6.0 or above.

Navigate to the folder where the file OpenBullet2.dll is located (the one you just unzipped) and launch it by using the following command:

dotnet ./OpenBullet2.dll

If you’re on Windows 64 bit, you can double click on OpenBullet2.exe instead to achieve the same result (on Windows 32 bit you need to use the terminal command above). You should now be able to navigate to http://localhost:5000 on your browser in order to see the OpenBullet 2 setup screen.

Using docker

Install docker from Get Docker | Docker Documentation Create a folder (e.g., on windows you can create C:/OB2/UserData) where your settings will be stored, and then run

docker run --name openbullet2 --rm -p 8069:5000 -v C:/OB2/UserData/:/app/UserData/ -it openbullet/openbullet2:latest

and finally navigate to http://localhost:8069 to access your dockerized OB2 instance!

Let’s break down the docker command:

-p 8069:5000 will map your local port 8069 to the container’s port 5000 where OB2 is listening
-v C:/OB2/UserData/:/app/UserData/ will map the C:/OB2/UserData directory on your system to the /app/UserData directory inside the container so that even if you switch container in the future (e.g., to update your OB2 instance) you won’t lose your settings
-it will start an interactive shell that lets you see the output of the OB2 webserver for debugging purposes. You can remove this if you don’t care about it.

Compiling your own build

Install git from Git - Downloads.
Install the .NET 6 SDK (not runtime) from Download .NET 6.0 (Linux, macOS, and Windows)
Open your favorite terminal (or git bash) and run git clone https://github.com/openbullet/OpenBullet2/
Now cd into the folder where OpenBullet2.csproj resides with cd OpenBullet2/OpenBullet2
And compile OB2 using dotnet publish --configuration Release
You can then navigate to the publish folder and start OB2 with the command:

cd bin/Release/net6.0/publish
dotnet ./OpenBullet2.dll

Native client (Windows only)

This is a WPF-based client that is only available for Windows. It is more responsive than the web-based client but lacks its portability, localization and remote access.

Running a precompiled build

First of all visit OpenBullet2's latest releases on the OpenBullet2 GitHub repository and download the OpenBullet2.Native.zip file (do not select the source code option). Once you downloaded it, unzip it to a folder of your choice.

64 bit

If you’re on a 64-bit system, simply double click on OpenBullet2.Native.exe. If you don’t have .NET 6 it will prompt saying you do not have it and for you to install it.

32 bit

If you’re on a 32-bit system, you will need to install .NET 6 manually if you don’t have it. Download and install the .NET 6 Desktop Runtime for Windows 32-bit.

After that, open a terminal, navigate to the folder where the executable is and launch it using the following command

dotnet ./OpenBullet2.Native.dll

Compiling your own build

Install git from Git - Downloads.
Install the .NET 6 SDK (not runtime) from Download .NET 6.0 (Linux, macOS, and Windows)
Open your favorite terminal (or git bash) and run

Now cd into the folder where OpenBullet2.Native.csproj resides using cd OpenBullet2/OpenBullet2.Native
And then compile OB2 Native using dotnet publish --configuration Release
You can then navigate to the publish folder and double-click on OpenBullet2.Native.exe to run it.