Howto: Compile the development version of vlc under the latest Ubuntu release

[andrew.46]

Removed these extra flags and error message has disappeared (using 2014.03.16.tar.gz).
My own fault for trying to be too clever. A little knowledge is dangerous.

Good to hear the issue is resolved . I will probably stay with the older version for the moment simply because the live555 guys remove the archive as soon as it is superceded, and the newer version is not always guaranteed to work with vlc. My own web site is no more and thus I don't have easy access to secure storage either to host my own copy...

By the way, the "--enable-realrtsp" option is badly broken.
Google says it can't/won't be fixed.
Probably that's why it's disabled by default.
Maybe best to airbrush this "feature" from the Howto guide.

My Google powers are no so good and I could not find discussion of this, do you have a link?

[ron998]

... the live555 guys remove the archive as soon as it is superceded...

Some old versions are here ---> http://download.videolan.org/contrib/live555/

...do you have a link?

It was in trac, but I can't find it now.

[andrew.46]

Some old versions are here ---> http://download.videolan.org/contrib/live555/

Indeed, that is the area used in this guide

It was in trac, but I can't find it now.

Never mind I will leave the option as it is for the moment and treat it with caution...

[andrew103]

got some erros at the begining, but after i looked again i mistyped some codes. silly me. great explanation also.

[andrew.46]

got some erros at the begining, but after i looked again i mistyped some codes. silly me. great explanation also.

Good to hear it all worked out . Mind you the guide is designed so that if you like a simple set of Copy and Paste commands should see the whole thing working, no typing or mistyping then required!

[andrew.46]

In a very minor update I have added in some details of how to automagically let mercurial / hg perform a cert check when downloading from multicoreware's x265 repository. Otherwise I will let the guide slumber until Trusty Tahr is release. (Unless something breaks...) Latest successful compile:

andrew@corinth:~$ cvlc --version | head -n 2
VLC media player 2.2.0-git Weatherwax (revision 44db86c)
VLC version 2.2.0-git Weatherwax (44db86c)
Compiled by andrew on corinth (Mar 18 2014 18:15:48)

[andrew.46]

Development of the Trusty Tahr version is stalled at the moment with the following consistent error:

  GEN      ../modules/plugins.dat
/bin/bash: line 4: 26442 Segmentation fault      (core dumped) ./vlc-cache-gen ../modules
make[2]: *** [../modules/plugins.dat] Error 139

Frustrating.....

[andrew.46]

I have spoken too soon as an Arch post suggested a fix which I have put in place. The guide has been updated and tested for Trusty and all is well. Most outstanding feature is that the guide has lost a lot of weight . Details below:

1. Updated the 'Development' files to suit Trusty. Some work remains here which I will undertake next weekend. A few version names for Trusty and a few files have been dropped.
2. Removed the fdk-aac commandline examples in the interest of simplifying the guide. I am not convinced that vlc is the best encoder in the world and I suspect there are few that will use the vlc cli. Examples will be given and discussed in the threads leading from the guide for those who are interested.
3. Again removed x265 compile examples. x265 is working beautifully with FFmpeg at the moment and also as a standalone executable but was eating up too much of my time with vlc so this time it is exiled until some stability with the uneasy partnership of FFmpeg / x265 / vlc has arrived.
4. Changed FFmpeg to latest release version. In the cause of simplifying the guide.
5. Removed bluray material, this does not work in Virtual Machine anyway. As far as I am aware bluray does not work under VM and this guide should be undertaken under VM so the bluray instructions have gone. I have the syntax backed up if anybody is keen to use it anyway.
6. Compile instructions for libopus removed as Trusty version is sufficient now. Pretty clear?
7. Removed skins instructions to keep focus on more central issues of this guide. I dislike skins and this has influenced my decision to remove this section. Some of the skins freeze vlc pretty badly anyway and I for one am not going to sort through them all looking for the good ones .
8. No longer compile release version as well, focus is on the development version. In the interest of minimising time spent away from the central business of this guide: building and experimenting with the development version.
9. Removed libfluidsynth instructions, this may be causing compile segfault. Removing this allowed compile to succeed on my system so out it goes. Not sure how many people seriously need this for midi playback and that sound font was ridiculously big!

Latest successful compile:

andrew@hellas:~$ cvlc --version | head -n 2
VLC media player 2.2.0-git Weatherwax (revision 017fa48)
VLC version 2.2.0-git Weatherwax (017fa48)
Compiled by andrew on hellas (Apr  8 2014 18:08:13)

New days for Trusty and this iteration of this guide could do with some testing so feel free to point out any errors or shortcomings .

[andrew.46]

Only a quick update this weekend: upgraded the FFmpeg version to 2.2.1. Latest successful compile:

andrew@hellas:~$ cvlc --version | head -n 3
VLC media player 2.2.0-git Weatherwax (revision 25d5ddb)
VLC version 2.2.0-git Weatherwax (25d5ddb)
Compiled by andrew on hellas (Apr 12 2014 20:21:40)
Compiler: gcc version 4.8.2 (Ubuntu 4.8.2-19ubuntu1)

[andrew.46]

I have temporarily retired my 8 core machine and will be surviving on an old Latitude D520 laptop, good news is that it runs Lubuntu Trusty very nicely on VM. And even better news is that this guide needs no modification at all to run on Lubuntu. Latest successful compile:

andrew@hellas:~$ cvlc --version | head -n 3
VLC media player 2.2.0-git Weatherwax (revision 6ceee19)
VLC version 2.2.0-git Weatherwax (6ceee19)
Compiled by andrew on hellas (Apr 16 2014 11:08:41)
Compiler: gcc version 4.8.2 (Ubuntu 4.8.2-19ubuntu1)

Mind you compiling vlc on effectively a single core can be a little painful so perhaps this guide will slumber for a while...