How can I install OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) without errors on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Question

What are the steps to build OBS for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS without dependencies or ffmpeg errors?

I initially followed the Ubuntu official documentation here: https://obsproject.com/wiki/install-instructions#linux as follow:

$sudo apt-get install ffmpeg $sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio $sudo apt-get update $sudo apt-get install obs-studio

It would lead to issue with package versions:

The following packages have unmet dependencies: obs-studio : Depends: libavcodec57 (>= 7:3.4.4) but 7:3.4.2-2 is to be installed or libavcodec-extra57 (>= 7:3.4.4) but it is not going to be installed Depends: libavdevice57 (>= 7:3.4.4) but 7:3.4.2-2 is to be installed Depends: libavformat57 (>= 7:3.4.4) but 7:3.4.2-2 is to be installed Depends: libavutil55 (>= 7:3.4.4) but 7:3.4.2-2 is to be installed Depends: libswresample2 (>= 7:3.4.4) but 7:3.4.2-2 is to be installed Depends: libswscale4 (>= 7:3.4.4) but 7:3.4.2-2 is to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Building from the source, clone with Git:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio.git

...still gives me errors:

CMake Error at /usr/share/cmake-3.10/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:137 (message): Could NOT find FFmpeg (missing: FFMPEG_AVCODEC_LIBRARIES FFMPEG_AVCODEC_INCLUDE_DIRS avcodec avdevice avutil avformat)

Answer 1

Add the following libraries before running cmake and make:

$sudo apt install libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libavdevice-dev (ref: How to download and install ffmpeg from Launchpad?)

Next you will need: $sudo apt-get install libmbedtls-dev

and Qt5Svg is required as well: $sudo apt-get install libqt5svg5-dev