Synology Surveillance Station Client on Linux

If you're using Synology Surveillance Station with security cameras that use H.265 and/or AAC encoding and are running Linux, you might have run into the issue of not being able to actually view your camera feeds in the Surveillance Station web view. Even if you have configured your browser to fully support these codecs, Synology's web view just won't let you see them.

Instead you are told to download their desktop app which, of course, is only available for Windows. Fortunately we have access to fantastic tools these days that let us fix these kinds of situations. We'll be using Bottles to install and use the Synology Surveillance Station Client application.

Before you proceed, please make sure you have Bottles installed and ready to use on your system.

Prerequisites

• Bottles installed and ready to use on your computer
• Synology Surveillance Station Client for Windows (64-bit, installer) installation exe downloaded (from here)
• H.265 and/or AAC enabled on your NAS through the Advanced Media Extensions extension. This is only needed if your cameras actually use these codecs, of course.

Enabling H.265 and/or AAC Codecs on your NAS

With DSM 7.0 onward, Synology changed the way these codecs are being handled, likely due to them changing the way they want to pay for licenses for these codecs. So if your cameras use either or both of these codecs, we have to make sure they are enabled first.

Log in to your Synology NAS using its web UI, and open up Package Manager. In there, look for the Advanced Media Extensions extension. If you didn't already install this previously,  do this now.

Click the Open button and a pop-up will show, telling you which of these codecs are enabled. If either or both of them are listed as disabled, enable them now.

That's all we need to do here. You can log out of your NAS and proceed with the installation.

Set up a bottle

In case you're not familiar with the bottles concept, each application (or game) you wish to use is installed in its own section, away from whatever other applications you might want to install. This way you can ensure each of these applications has the exact prerequisites it needs, without them potentially conflicting with other applications' specific requirements.

So, let's set up a bottle for the Surveillance Station application.

In my case I have called it simply Synology, but you're free to call it whatever you like. Make sure to select the Application environment, then click Create in the top-right hand side.

Now with this new bottle created, click on it in the list and you'll be greeted with a sidebar showing several sections. Head on over to the Preferences section first, and disable the Use DXVK option. This is key, as the client application will otherwise fail to start correctly.

Install the application

Now head back to the Details & Utilities section, and click the Run Executable button. A browse modal will show up. Use this to find the Surveillance Station Installation file you have downloaded previously. Make sure that it's the installer (the .exe version), not the "portable" variant.

Walk through the installation steps as you normally would. Installation should be nice and quick.

Once the installation completes and you left the checkboxes at the end enabled, you'll now be greeted with the Synology Surveillance Center application login window.

And that's all there is to it. You can now log in and use the app as normal, with full H.265 and AAC support.

The next time you want to launch this application, just start up Bottles, select the Synology bottle you have just created. There should now be a new option called Synology Surveillance Station Client under the Programs header. Click the play button on it's right hand-side, and the app will launch straight away.

Closing thoughts

It's a bit unfortunate that we can't just use the web version, but at least it's fairly straight-forward to install and use the desktop application using wonderful tools like Bottles, and underlying technologies like WINE that make it all possible.

I hope this helps you.

Thank you.