VLC
You should replace with the version of your system (12.1, 11.4, 11.3, 11.2 or 11.1)
The method for badly-behaved distributions
If your distribution does not provide the needed libraries, or you really want to link VLC statically, use the VLC contribs system. It is included in the VLC source.
First, you need to install the GNU autotools (if you have not already done so), CMake, subversion, Git and a recent GNU/tar utility or equivalent. # apt-get install subversion yasm cvs cmake
Then you can run:% cd contrib
% mkdir native
% cd native
% ../bootstrap
% make
Note the commands above are for VLC 2.0 or later. Details differ slightly for older versions:% cd extras/contrib
% ./bootstrap
% make
That should download and build a lot of those libraries for you. Unfortunately, given the large number of libraries and the variety of the platforms people build VLC for, it is not unlikely that you will hit an error while contribs are compiling. Thus, this approach is only recommended for experienced Unix compilers.
The method for people with too much time to waste
Read the , download them and build them by hand.
Regardless of the method
In any case, some basic OS support libraries are not included and must really be installed through the packaging system in any case, notably , and .
Configuration
./configure is used to check whether your system is able to compile VLC. Also you can choose the features in your build. As a reminder, this command will show the various options:% ./configure --help
VLC 2.0 and later: For most users, ./configure does not require any command-line options.
By default, features to be compiled are chosen automatically depending on what libraries are detected as available. If the contribs have been compiled first, the resulting VLC will be reasonably functional.
Note that libraries that are not in the default prefix, and not in vlc contribs, must be known to pkg-config in order for ./configure to find them.
There are some features that are disabled (not compiled) by default. If you want them, they must be forced on by using configure flags. You can find a list of these features by searching for "disabled" in ./configure --help.
(Beginner's guide: enter the command% ./configure --help | less
and hit enter. Type a slash '/', type "disabled" (without quotes), hit enter. Pressing n goes to the next match, N goes to previous match, q returns to the command line. Use the up/down arrow keys to scroll. All matches except the --cache-file option (which belongs to configure itself) are VLC features that must be forced on if desired.)
VLC 1.1 and earlier: You probably need to tweak the "configure" line.
Special libs
VLC 2.0 and later: there are no special libraries. If live555 exists in the contrib/ subdirectory, it is detected automatically. Any libraries that are not in the default prefix, and not in vlc contribs, must be known to pkg-config in order for ./configure to find them.
VLC 1.1 and earlier: Use --with-live555-path=path/to/livemedia/source/tree in connection with --enable-live555. For FFmpeg or libav, pkg-config is the only reliable way for VLC's configure to find the libraries. So you need to set PKG_CONFIG_PATH correctly if your FFmpeg/libav libraries are not installed at the default prefix (meaning /usr) or you want to use static linking.
Final configuration
If you want to install VLC into another directory, run% ./configure --prefix=/path/to/install/folder/
This is an example of a typical VLC configure line:% ./configure --enable-x11 --enable-xvideo --enable-sdl --enable-avcodec --enable-avformat \
--enable-swscale --enable-mad --enable-libdvbpsi --enable-a52 --enable-libmpeg2 --enable-dvdnav \
--enable-faad --enable-vorbis --enable-ogg --enable-theora --enable-faac --enable-mkv --enable-freetype \
--enable-fribidi --enable-speex --enable-flac--enable-live555 --with-live555-tree=/usr/lib/live \
--enable-caca --enable-skins --enable-skins2 --enable-alsa --enable-qt4 --enable-ncurses
is another.
Ubuntu
If you get continuous errors while ./configure then consider reinstalling the corresponding libraries. This will set the paths and other information correctly. Check the $PKG_CONFIG_PATH(environment variable) whether it is set to a path where the libraries like libavcodec.pc are available. Otherwise create the environment variable, export it and then update the ldconfig.
Compilation
Compile VLC:% make
You do not need to install VLC to use it. You can also simply run it from the build directory:# ./vlc
If you really want to install VLC to the system, run this as root:# make install
You can uninstall later with this, but you need to keep the build tree untouched until then:# make uninstall
To remove files created during the compile (optional) type:% make clean
Notes
Cygwin
Compiling on may be broken from time to time as Cygwin packages change. We recommend instead. Consider yourself warned.
Debian/Ubuntu
Debian users who want to compile VLC should install the packages below:
If you just want to use VLC media player then simply install the package vlc (sudo apt-get install vlc) - the unstable version is fairly up-to-date most of the time, while the stable is, err, stable and very old ;-)
Troubleshooting / common problems
Lua
You may need to install Lua if you get "LUA byte compiler missing." message. You namely need to install "luac", the Lua byte compiler.
On Debian/Ubuntu:% sudo apt-get install lua5.1
On Fedora:% sudo yum install lua
XCB
VLC 1.1 and later requires XCB libraries to deal with X11 displays. Do not disable XCB or you will not get any video support!
To install these libraries run the following commands (Debian/Ubuntu):% sudo apt-get install libxcb-shm0-dev libxcb-xv0-dev libxcb-keysyms1-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-composite0-dev
Under Fedora:% sudo yum install libxcb-devel xcb-util-devel
ForOpenGL (Debian/Ubuntu only), you will additionally needXLib with XCB:% sudo apt-get installlibx11-xcb-dev
If your distribution provides a version of XLib without XCB, then this later package will not be available. So you will not be able to use OpenGL. Use XVideo instead.
Compile fails after git pull
It is likely that the sources in the repository have changed significantly since they were last pulled, and a build system cache has gone out of date. Try the troubleshooting methods described in the .