[FFmpeg-user] ffmpeg only works for one user.

[Lou]

On Wed, Aug 14, 2013, at 12:13 PM, Leonard Bogard wrote:
> I followed the instructions at
> http://ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/wiki/UbuntuCompilationGuide to install
> ffmpeg but the only user it works on is the user I logged into to install it

The guide locally installs the ffmpeg binary to the ~/bin directory of
the user following the guide. A system installation is not used by the
guide. This prevents conflicts with the old, fake "ffmpeg" package in
the repository, or more importantly, usually prevents interfering with
packages that depend on the old, fake "ffmpeg" package in the
repository.

> All users can have access to ffmpeg itself but when they try to do
> anything it fails with "Unknown encoder 'libx264'".  I don't get that
> error with the user it was installed with.

This means they are using the so-called "ffmpeg" from the repository.

> How do I fix this?

You have several options. Here are some ideas:

* Perform a "system installation" with checkinstall (the following is
somewhat outdated but will give you an idea):
  <http://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/UbuntuCompilationGuide?version=59>

* Install the compiled ffmpeg (or simply a ffmpeg build):
  <https://ffmpeg.org/download.html#LinuxBuilds>
  ...in a custom location and use a persistent environmental variable to
  allow all users to use it:
  <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables#Persistent_environment_variables>