HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[qyot27]

It is not necessary to compile ffmpeg with --enable-shared, but if you want updated versions of libav[format/codec/util/etc] in programs that do read said shared libraries, it probably works as an update for them. I never compile it shared. Static compilation (which is the default) is far less trouble, IMO.

Out of interest, why would someone want to do this - what are the advantages??

Because checkinstall doesn't always complete successfully, and I'm not sure if checkinstall-produced builds are acceptable for repository submission. I assume they aren't, though.

[Bachstelze]

Also, it allows to use programs in the repos with newer ffmpeg without recompiling the program. A lot of people in this thread hated the fact that some package depended on a particular libav* package, but their checkinstall'ed ffmpeg didn't provide it.

[mc4man]

You should probably remove from orig. diff
+# there is no libfaad in ubuntu/main, on in ubuntu/multiverse
+gpl_confflags += $(call cond_enable,/usr/include/faad.h,libfaad)
or make adjustment before build in confflags file

The value of newer shared ffmpeg libs may depend of what your use of them is. - I've always done it at least once per install since hardy though some apps will require a re-build against. Overall the value is limited from what I've seen, less now than in hardy.

Would be interested in hearing of any specific gains in dependent apps (without a re-build

[verb3k]

Thanks Firas. I've been looking into this just yesterday. It really bothers me that anything from the repo that depended on ffmpeg tried to install libav* while I already have them.

Peace be with you.

[Stoneface]

Doing the 10.04 ffmpeg + x264 tutorial on Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick:

me@ubuntu:/etc$ cat lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=maverick
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu maverick (development branch)"

and get stuck in the end as it seems not to be able to find x264 even though I followed all steps:

me@ubuntu:~$ cd ffmpeg
me@ubuntu:~/ffmpeg$ ./configure --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-x11grab
ERROR: libx264 not found

If you think configure made a mistake, make sure you are using the latest
version from SVN.  If the latest version fails, report the problem to the
ffmpeg-user@mplayerhq.hu mailing list or IRC #ffmpeg on irc.freenode.net.
Include the log file "config.log" produced by configure as this will help
solving the problem.

Read http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/...ne/021190.html and reading http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8818886 . Maybe user prefix should be added during x264 configuration?

[Stoneface]

Found one error during the x264 installation:

~/x264$ sudo checkinstall --pkgname=libvpx --pkgversion="`date +%Y%m%d%k%M`-git" --backup=no --nodoc --default

checkinstall 1.6.2, Copyright 2009 Felipe Eduardo Sanchez Diaz Duran
           This software is released under the GNU GPL.



*****************************************
**** Debian package creation selected ***
*****************************************

*** Warning: The package version "20100627 637-git" is not a
*** Warning: debian policy compliant one. Please specify an alternate one

This package will be built according to these values: 

0 -  Maintainer: [ root@ubuntu ]
1 -  Summary: [ Package created with checkinstall 1.6.2 ]
2 -  Name:    [ libvpx ]
3 -  Version: [ 0 ]
4 -  Release: [ 1 ]
5 -  License: [ GPL ]
6 -  Group:   [ checkinstall ]
7 -  Architecture: [ i386 ]
8 -  Source location: [ x264 ]
9 -  Alternate source location: [  ]
10 - Requires: [  ]
11 - Provides: [ libvpx ]
12 - Conflicts: [  ]
13 - Replaces: [  ]

Enter a number to change any of them or press ENTER to continue: 

Installing with make install...

========================= Installation results ===========================
install -d /usr/local/bin
install -d /usr/local/include
install -d /usr/local/lib
install -d /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig
install: cannot change permissions of `/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig': No such file or directory
make: *** [install] Error 1

****  Installation failed. Aborting package creation.

Cleaning up...OK

Bye.

The culprit seems to be:

install: cannot change permissions of `/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig': No such file or directory

So I did:

sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig

and tried to install x264 again and did so successfully. But I still got the same error installing ffmpeg: ERROR: libx264 not found:

~/ffmpeg$ ./configure --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-x11grab
ERROR: libx264 not found

If you think configure made a mistake, make sure you are using the latest
version from SVN.  If the latest version fails, report the problem to the
ffmpeg-user@mplayerhq.hu mailing list or IRC #ffmpeg on irc.freenode.net.
Include the log file "config.log" produced by configure as this will help
solving the problem.

Cleaned all started all over again. added --prefix=/user to configuration of ffmpeg:

./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-x11grab

and that worked:

install prefix            /usr
source path               /home/me/ffmpeg
C compiler                gcc
ARCH                      x86 (generic)
big-endian                no
runtime cpu detection     no
yasm                      yes
MMX enabled               yes
MMX2 enabled              yes
3DNow! enabled            yes
3DNow! extended enabled   yes
SSE enabled               yes
SSSE3 enabled             yes
CMOV enabled              no
CMOV is fast              no
EBX available             yes
EBP available             no
10 operands supported     yes
debug symbols             yes
strip symbols             yes
optimizations             yes
static                    yes
shared                    no
postprocessing support    yes
new filter support        yes
filters using lavformat   no
network support           yes
threading support         pthreads
SDL support               yes
Sun medialib support      no
AVISynth enabled          no
libdc1394 support         no
libdirac enabled          no
libfaac enabled           yes
libgsm enabled            no
libmp3lame enabled        yes
libnut enabled            no
libopencore-amrnb support yes
libopencore-amrwb support yes
libopenjpeg enabled       no
librtmp enabled           no
libschroedinger enabled   no
libspeex enabled          no
libtheora enabled         yes
libvorbis enabled         yes
libvpx enabled            yes
libx264 enabled           yes
libxvid enabled           yes
zlib enabled              yes
bzlib enabled             no

Enabled decoders:
aac			dxa			mpegvideo
aasc			eac3			msmpeg4v1
ac3			eacmv			msmpeg4v2
adpcm_4xm		eamad			msmpeg4v3
adpcm_adx		eatgq			msrle
adpcm_ct		eatgv			msvideo1
adpcm_ea		eatqi			mszh
adpcm_ea_maxis_xa	eightbps		nellymoser
adpcm_ea_r1		eightsvx_exp		nuv
adpcm_ea_r2		eightsvx_fib		pam
----------- cut  -----

License: nonfree and unredistributable
Creating config.mak and config.h...

Which did the trick for that particular step. then make (compiling) and installation went well

[Bachstelze]

Also, --pkgversion="`date +%Y%m%d%k%M`-git" should be --pkgversion="`date +%Y%m%d%H%M`-git". Otherwise it inserts a space if the hour is < 10, which as the warning says makes a non-compliant version number.

[mc4man]

checkinstall 1.6.2, (used now on maverick), has some issues as currently built, one is it can fail to create some dirs and or dir. tree's
(when doing totem-xine I needed to create several) - 1.6.1 doesn't have this issue

[Mr_bleu]

Cannot read log file '/home/djr/video/dp.log-0.log' for pass-2 encoding: No such file or directory


Help. I've finally gotten ffmpeg running again and I get that error when I click convert using winff.

[mc4man]

As far as Maverick - don't see any issues as mentioned in post 1076 with the exception of checkinstall 1.6.2 failing to create a dir. for x264 install. (/pkgconfig

All of the commands in post 1 are fine as is.

(note that Stoneface was using the checkinstall command for libvpx on x264 build -

There is no need to use a --prefix for ffmpeg, though certainly one could if desired.
(again noting libx264 was probably installed as libvpx initially, and would have caused ffmpeg config error

edit
bug report on ckinstall if anyone wants to test and confirm