Linux VLC FAQ

For more FAQ answers for all platforms, look at the Common Problems

Q.- I am trying to compile VLC and i'm getting the errors "Missing header file ffmpeg/avcodec.h" and/or "Missing header file postproc/postprocess.h"

A1. To get rid of these problems while compiling, run configure with these flags at least: ./configure --enable-shared --enable-shared-pp --enable-pp --enable-gpl

The description of each of those is available when doing ./configure --help

A2. The path of ffmpeg is not set. Check if you can locate the file libavcodec.pc on your computer; say you had find it in /home/you/ffmpeg/ . Export the PKG_CONFIG_PATH to this location:

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/home/you/ffmpeg/

Then run ./configure for VLC.

Q.- I am trying to compile VLC and on a 64 bit system and i'm getting the errors "cc1: error: invalid option `tune=opteron'"

A. From what I can see, the -mtune flag is not available for this type of processor in man gcc. I had to change the configure options comment out all the lines where they set mcpu or mtune flags.) I don't know if this is the correct way to proceed but was the only way for me to get results fast.

Q.- I am trying to compile VLC and on a 64 bit system and i'm getting the errors "/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lX11"

A. In the configure, there is an x_libraries variable there that is set to "/usr/X11R6/lib" (around line 16371). Because it is a 64 bit system, this variable needs to be /usr/X11R6/lib64. After changing that, it should continue compiling.

Q.- (after using urpmi for vlc ) I tried to run vlc 0.8.4 on mdk 10.0 and got a run time error : VLC media player 0.8.4 Janus libhal.c 644 : Error connecting to system bus: Failed to connect to socket /var/run/dbus/system_dbus_socket: No such file or directory How to get rid of these problems or how to find a work around to this error ?