This tutorial is designed for a headless server, and does not install anything related to X11. These instructions assume that you have escalated to root (sudo su), and have been tested with Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, & 13.04.

Initial Installation ∞

  1. Remove old ffmpeg, x264, and avconv 
    apt-get remove -y ffmpeg x264 libav-tools yasm &&
apt-get autoremove -y
  2. Install dependencies. I added python-dev & cython because I use the yasm Python bindings; remove if you do not need them. 
    apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y &&
apt-get install -y autoconf automake build-essential git libass-dev libfaac-dev libgpac-dev \
  libmp3lame-dev libopus-dev libtheora-dev libtool libvorbis-dev libvpx-dev pkg-config texi2html \
  zlib1g-dev python-dev cython
  3. Set up the sources directory 
    cd /usr/local/src/ &&
mkdir ffmpeg_sources &&
cd ffmpeg_sources/
  4. Install yasm. The current version is 1.3.0 (as of 02/28/2015); check http://yasm.tortall.net/Download.html for new versions. Remove --enable-python-bindings if you do not need the yasm Python bindings. 
    wget http://www.tortall.net/projects/yasm/releases/yasm-1.3.0.tar.gz &&
tar -xvf yasm-1.3.0.tar.gz &&
cd yasm-1.3.0 &&
./configure --prefix="/usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="/usr/local/bin" --enable-python-bindings &&
make && make install && make distclean &&
cd .. &&
rm -Rf yasm-1.3.0.tar.gz
  5. Install x264 
    git clone --depth 1 git://git.videolan.org/x264.git &&
cd x264 &&
./configure --prefix="/usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="/usr/local/bin" --enable-static &&
make && make install && make distclean &&
cd ..
  6. Install fdk-aac 
    git clone --depth 1 git://github.com/mstorsjo/fdk-aac.git &&
cd fdk-aac &&
autoreconf -fiv &&
./configure --prefix="/usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="/usr/local/bin" --disable-shared &&
make && make install && make distclean &&
cd ..
  7. Install ffmpeg 
    git clone --depth 1 git://source.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg &&
cd ffmpeg &&
./configure --prefix="/usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build" --extra-cflags="-I/usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build/include" \
  --extra-ldflags="-L/usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build/lib" --bindir="/usr/local/bin" --extra-libs="-ldl" --enable-gpl \
  --enable-libass --enable-libfaac --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-postproc \
  --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-nonfree &&
make && make install && make distclean &&
hash -r &&
cd ..

Updating ∞

  1. Remove old build files & binaries 
    rm -Rf /usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build /usr/local/bin/{ffmpeg,ffplay,ffprobe,ffserver,yasm,vsyasm,ytasm,x264}
  2. Update packages through package manager 
    apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y
  3. Install yasm. The current version is 1.3.0 (as of 02/28/2015); check http://yasm.tortall.net/Download.html for new versions. Remove --enable-python-bindings if you do not need the yasm Python bindings. 
    cd /usr/local/src/ffmpeg_sources &&
wget http://www.tortall.net/projects/yasm/releases/yasm-1.3.0.tar.gz &&
tar -xvf yasm-1.3.0.tar.gz &&
cd yasm-1.3.0 &&
./configure --prefix="/usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="/usr/local/bin" --enable-python-bindings &&
make && make install && make distclean &&
cd .. &&
rm -Rf yasm-1.3.0.tar.gz
  4. Update source binaries 
    cd /usr/local/src/ffmpeg_sources/x264 &&
git pull &&
./configure --prefix="/usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="/usr/local/bin" --enable-static &&
make && make install && make distclean &&
cd ../fdk-aac &&
git pull  &&
./configure --prefix="/usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build" --disable-shared &&
make && make install && make distclean &&
cd ../ffmpeg &&
./configure --prefix="/usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build" --extra-cflags="-I/usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build/include" \
  --extra-ldflags="-L/usr/local/src/ffmpeg_build/lib" --bindir="/usr/local/bin" --extra-libs="-ldl" --enable-gpl \
  --enable-libass --enable-libfaac --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-postproc \
  --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-nonfree &&
make && make install && make distclean &&
cd ..
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