HOWTO: Install and use the latest FFmpeg and x264

[Redwol]

Install the Flash Aid extension in Firefox, then run it to update/change your flash plugin. This fixed it for me.

Thanks! This fixed my issue.
edit: I also noticed there was a update to flash plugin so it might have fixed the issue but I installed both nonetheless. Also I am using Nouveau, instead of NVIDIA driver.

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Just carried out installation on headless server. Required reboot to enable functionality (e.g. didn't recognise "c:v libx264" option). After reboot all worked as expected

Good timing. I recently modified the guide a few days ago to support headless servers by excluding some needless dependencies. I also wikified the Lucid and Hardy versions but haven't linked to them yet.

A reboot? Inconceivable! I don't understand why it wouldn't recognize "c:v libx264" without a reboot. Do you remember the particular message you got when you did try?

Thanks! This fixed my issue.

Good, because I had no idea.

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

A reboot? Inconceivable! I don't understand why it wouldn't recognize "c:v libx264" without a reboot. Do you remember the particular message you got when you did try?

Just that IIRC. Same report you get when you put an incorrect parameter in the chain ....

Didn't have to reboot when I installed to desktop 12.04 though....

(Must confess I didn't spot your headless server section (to quote a song from Beauty and the Beast: "there was something there that wasn't there before ) until I had run the desktop install, so maybe this didn't help?

[liam.bliss]

Hello all, I'm trying to build FFmpeg with h254 support on my headless Ubuntu 12.04 server, as per https://ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/wiki/...mpilationGuide

h264 builds fine, but when i try to build FFmpeg it fails every time at the "CC libavcodec/h254" step.

$ make
CC      libavdevice/alldevices.o
CC      libavdevice/alsa-audio-common.o
CC      libavdevice/alsa-audio-dec.o
CC      libavdevice/alsa-audio-enc.o
[...SNIP...]
CC      libavcodec/h263.o
CC      libavcodec/h263_parser.o
CC      libavcodec/h263dec.o
CC      libavcodec/h264.o
gcc: internal compiler error: Killed (program cc1)
Please submit a full bug report,
with preprocessed source if appropriate.
See <file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.6/README.Bugs> for instructions.
make: *** [libavcodec/h264.o] Error 4
$

I followed the instructions to the letter, with the exception that I apt-get installed FFmpeg and libx264-dev beforehand and then apt-get removed them when they didn't work.

Does anyone have any idea why the build might be failing? Apologies if this has been asked before, there's a lot of posts to read through in this thread!

- Liam

[andrew.46]

This could be a ram access problem rather than an FFmpeg issue. Have you had a look at available ram / swap file?

[ron999]

Hi FakeOutdoorsman
I've used the guide with Pangolin.


No problems...

...but afterwards when I compiled MEncoder, config couldn't find x264.


So I've had to re-compile x264 with "--enable-shared".

With Natty, MEncoder found x264 OK with "--enable-static".
Maybe something has changed since then.
(Or maybe I was compiling against some other x264 or libx264-dev that it found somewhere).

[FakeOutdoorsman]

...but afterwards when I compiled MEncoder, config couldn't find x264.

I haven't compiled MEncoder in years. Maybe Andrew will have an idea?

[mc4man]

Hi FakeOutdoorsman
I've used the guide with Pangolin.


No problems...

...but afterwards when I compiled MEncoder, config couldn't find x264.


So I've had to re-compile x264 with "--enable-shared".

With Natty, MEncoder found x264 OK with "--enable-static".
Maybe something has changed since then.
(Or maybe I was compiling against some other x264 or libx264-dev that it found somewhere).

This is likely caused by gcc > 4.4 which uses "as-needed". So if you were to check your configure log the x264 section would probably have quite a number of 'undefined references'

How you could change this in a mplayer build not sure, possibly ask in the compiling subforum

Otherwise you could just as well build x264 as both static & shared, won't matter much, the libx264 version # is going to be higher than the ubuntu repo's one so they can co-exist
Otherwise you could install gcc-4.4 & configure mplayer with --cc=gcc-4.4

[andrew.46]

I haven't compiled MEncoder in years. Maybe Andrew will have an idea?

I too have not looked at MEncoder for a long while. But config.log should give a meaningful error message?

[ron999]

Hi mc4man

I've done some experiments.
It seems that now with Pangolin...

IF x264 is not installed
    THEN MEncoder is happy to build with libx264-dev
        ELSE
            IF x264 is installed
                THEN MEncoder won't build with libx264-dev

Maybe it's possible to force the compiler to ignore a static x264 and allow MEncoder to build with libx264-dev.
In the meantime, I've compiled x264 'shared' and removed libx264-dev.