how to build ffmpeg from source

platform specific

• in order to install ffmpeg on RHEL 5 you should use the dag repository for the dependencies
  • see http://dag.linux.iastate.edu
  • follow the instructions under Configuring yum To Use This Repository and dont forget to Install Dag's GPG Key

getting the source

• get the latest ffmpeg from svn checkout svn://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk ffmpeg

configuring dependencies

• if you want full media supprt you need to get the dependencies
  • lame, faac, faad2 can be retrieved from dag: sudo yum install faac-devel.i386 faad2-devel.i386 lame-devel.i386
  • amr requires manual build and install:
    • get tarballs for both nb and wb from here: http://www.penguin.cz/~utx/amr
    • unzip, untar, for both (current versions 7.0.0) no problems building
    • for both do: ./configure, make, sudo make install

configure and build

• configure with:
  • ./configure --enable-shared --disable-static --disable-vhook --enable-libamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libfaad
  • note that for FAAD2 support you rneed to add --enable-gpl and for libamr you need to add --enable-nonfree
  • i was unable to compile with faac/faad support, even though it was intalled ffmepg couldnt locate it and so I had to disable it

• make, sudo make install

• configure issues
  • if you get this error running configure
    • Unable to create and execute files in /tmp
  • you need to update fstab and remove the noexec flag
    • make sure you add it back when finished!
  • refer here for more info
    • http://www.linuxadmin.org/blog/ffmpeg-installation-problem-on-the-linux/