HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[tapas_mishra]

sudo apt-get remove ffmpeg x264 libx264-dev

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential subversion git-core checkinstall yasm texi2html libfaac-dev libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev libsdl1.2-dev libtheora-dev  libvorbis-dev libx11-dev libxfixes-dev libxvidcore-dev zlib1g-dev

cd
git clone git://git.videolan.org/x264.git
cd x264
./configure --enable-libmp3lame

Gives me error

Unknown option --enable-libmp3lame, ignored

[DaSilva_Ireland]

Hey, I am new to this and wondering about something. I did as the directions instructed and everything seemed to work alright.

However when I now try to build something with the ffmpeg libs I get errors. Code that previously compiled now gives tons of errors, I could understand if the errors were in my source but they seem to be in ffmpegs source.

gcc ffmpeg_test.c -o ffmpeg_test -lavutil -lavformat -lswscale

Results in many undefined references.

ffmpeg_test.c: In function ‘main’:
ffmpeg_test.c:85: warning: assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast
ffmpeg_test.c:88: warning: assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast
/usr/local/lib/libavformat.a(concat.o): In function `concat_close':
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/concat.c:51: undefined reference to `av_freep'
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/concat.c:52: undefined reference to `av_freep'
/usr/local/lib/libavformat.a(concat.o): In function `concat_open':
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/concat.c:67: undefined reference to `av_strstart'
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/concat.c:70: undefined reference to `av_mallocz'
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/concat.c:78: undefined reference to `av_freep'
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/concat.c:82: undefined reference to `av_malloc'
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/concat.c:83: undefined reference to `av_freep'
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/concat.c:94: undefined reference to `av_realloc'
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/concat.c:99: undefined reference to `av_strlcpy'
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/concat.c:117: undefined reference to `av_free'
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/concat.c:122: undefined reference to `av_realloc'
...
many more
...
/usr/local/lib/libavformat.a(rtpenc_chain.o): In function `ff_rtp_chain_mux_open':
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/rtpenc_chain.c:56: undefined reference to `av_free'
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/rtpenc_chain.c:73: undefined reference to `av_free'
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/rtpenc_chain.c:74: undefined reference to `av_free'
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/rtpenc_chain.c:71: undefined reference to `av_free'
/usr/local/lib/libavformat.a(sauce.o): In function `ff_sauce_read':
/home/******/ffmpeg/libavformat/sauce.c:88: undefined reference to `av_malloc'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [all] Error 1

[jackachan]

Thank you for putting back the retired guides.

I have followed the guides for 10.04 to build the X264 and ffmpeg on a 10.04. Maybe it is just my problem, in the second step, I could not install libsdl1.2-dev. As it has the dependencies on older versions of some packages. I solved the problem by using "aptitude" instead of "apt-get". For "aptitude" it will ask me if I want to downgrade the dependencies to some older versions, then it works when I agree to downgrade.

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Gives me error

Unknown option --enable-libmp3lame, ignored

No need to ask the same question in two additional threads. It appears that you followed the guide out of order and attempted to apply --enable-libmp3lame to x264.

You may be interested in using the repository FFmpeg instead. You may find it easier to install:

HOWTO: Easily enable MP3, MPEG4, AAC, and other restricted encoders in FFmpeg

... However when I now try to build something with the ffmpeg libs I get errors. Code that previously compiled now gives tons of errors, I could understand if the errors were in my source but they seem to be in ffmpegs source.

Sorry, I'm not sure of the answer, and I don't think I can help you much here. I recommend asking for help at the #ffmpeg IRC channel or the ffmpeg-user mailing list.

Thank you for putting back the retired guides.

I have followed the guides for 10.04 to build the X264 and ffmpeg on a 10.04. Maybe it is just my problem, in the second step, I could not install libsdl1.2-dev. As it has the dependencies on older versions of some packages. I solved the problem by using "aptitude" instead of "apt-get". For "aptitude" it will ask me if I want to downgrade the dependencies to some older versions, then it works when I agree to downgrade.

I'm not sure what happened. Maybe an interfering PPA?

[undercash]

Hello

I am having the following issue : I want to update my ffmpeg and here is the output:
http://pastebin.com/ZvM6qzrG

I previously tried on a test server where a fresher copy of ffmpeg was compiled (the same way as my live server btw) and I don't have any problems at all, neither when I try manually or using the updater script that you link too in the first post.

Can I just rename the actual ffmpeg source folder to ffmpeg_old and download a new one from where I will recompile ffmpeg? Even without having been able to apt-get remove neither make distclean?

Should I try to install ffmpeg using the apt-get manager to have a clean install and then remove/purge it. Then once uninstalled, I would compile from source again?

Thanks

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Hello

I am having the following issue : I want to update my ffmpeg and here is the output:
http://pastebin.com/ZvM6qzrG

It looks like you're running make distclean in a directory where you never ran make in it so there is nothing to clean. You can just continue and not worry about these messages.

Can I just rename the actual ffmpeg source folder to ffmpeg_old and download a new one from where I will recompile ffmpeg?

Yes, you can do that if you want to, but I don't see many reasons to do that.

Even without having been able to apt-get remove neither make distclean?

Sorry, but I don't understand this question.

Should I try to install ffmpeg using the apt-get manager to have a clean install and then remove/purge it. Then once uninstalled, I would compile from source again?

Performing "apt-get install ffmpeg" would install the version from the repository. See the Updating FFmpeg and x264 section of the guide for an example of how to update FFmpeg.

[undercash]

Hi, thanks a lot for this (very fast) answer.

I m using your tutorial for compiling and obviously I looked at it to update.

so you saw the result of the make distclean. Then I do

root@server:/root/ffmpeg# svn update

Fetching external item into 'libswscale'
External at revision 32618.

At revision 25716.

But it doesn't fetch any files (btw , this is probably the reason why the auto updater script fails as well).

You say I probably never made "make" on this directory but this is not possible since this is the directory from where I actually compiled ffmpeg some months ago

Thinking about ideas to be able to perform "apt-get remove ffmpeg" , since it is not possible right now, I thought I could install the package from repos, and then uninstall it so it would clean properly ffmpeg before recompiling from source. It's the only think that come to my mind right now: I didn't find almost any docs about that issue on googling it.
It's a live server of a streaming site so looks like a big risk for me, reason I trying to gather infos before any attempts on my own.

Thanks

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Hi, thanks a lot for this (very fast) answer.

I m using your tutorial for compiling and obviously I looked at it to update.

so you saw the result of the make distclean. Then I do

root@server:/root/ffmpeg# svn update

Fetching external item into 'libswscale'
External at revision 32618.

At revision 25716.

But it doesn't fetch any files (btw , this is probably the reason why the auto updater script fails as well).

It doesn't fetch any files because there are no new files to fetch. You are up-to-date with the latest revision.

You say I probably never made "make" on this directory but this is not possible since this is the directory from where I actually compiled ffmpeg some months ago

I'm not sure then, but you can duplicate the behavior by grabbing a clean copy of the source and then running make distclean.

[Cavsfan]

Thanks for that reminder to keep it up to date FakeOutdoorsman! After the update on Page 1:

27 files changed, 350 insertions(+), 298 deletions(-)

[prupert]

Hello

I am having the following issue : I want to update my ffmpeg and here is the output:
http://pastebin.com/ZvM6qzrG

I previously tried on a test server where a fresher copy of ffmpeg was compiled (the same way as my live server btw) and I don't have any problems at all, neither when I try manually or using the updater script that you link too in the first post.

Can I just rename the actual ffmpeg source folder to ffmpeg_old and download a new one from where I will recompile ffmpeg? Even without having been able to apt-get remove neither make distclean?

Should I try to install ffmpeg using the apt-get manager to have a clean install and then remove/purge it. Then once uninstalled, I would compile from source again?

Thanks

Also, would "sudo dpkg -r ffmpeg" work better?