Hi there

How come slackpkg does not support ffmpeg?

Steve

Care to add more details? I mean why do you say it does not support ffmpeg? as far as my experience has been, slackpkg has no issues related to ffmpeg.

If I search slackpkg for ffmpeg it returns no matches for the pattern.

if you are using 14.2 it's correct: there's no ffmpeg in the Slackware 14.2 official package repositories, it has been introduced in Slackware current, the development version of the distribution (soon to become 15.0).

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Here is the problem
firefox will not play most vidoes. eg BBC FB
The forums point to ffmpeg and I was hoping that an easy slackpkg install would solve that rather than having to build it from slackbuilds.

Why is it no longer supported, is there now something better that replaces ffmpeg?

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Slackware current, has ffmpeg, but 14.2 never shipped with it; originally the version of Fire Fox included in 14.2, didn't use ffmpeg. In other words, nothing replaced ffmpeg -- instead ffmpeg replaced gstreamer. (its not a matter of no longer supported, but a matter of, it is now supported).

gstreamer is on slackpkg

yes, slackpkg can find gstreamer, but Fire Fox doesn't use it anymore.

So how does one set up firefox to watch videos?

you could install ffmpeg

https://slackware.nl/people/alien/re..._64-1alien.txz


Petri Kaukasoina was kind enough to link to it earlier.

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I will install it the hard way but why ship firefox knowing it will not allow videos to work

To consolidate the information here...

When 14.2 shipped, Firefox used gstreamer for backend codec support. xine-lib and MPlayer both support ffmpeg, but they were statically linked within those packages and ffmpeg was not a standalone package on 14.2. Firefox continued to be developed and now requires ffmpeg for proper playback, but this still isn't in 14.2. Users who want ffmpeg need to install it from SBo or from Alien Bob's package repo. slackpkg will not find ffmpeg since it doesn't exist on Slackware mirrors.

Fast forward to development for what will eventually be released as 15.0, more software (including Firefox) requires ffmpeg, so it was added to the system back in Feb 2017. slackpkg will find ffmpeg (for -current and eventually 15.0, once that is released as stable) since it is found on Slackware mirrors.

To make things really easy on 14.2, just download and install Alien Bob's restricted ffmpeg package. It has support for pretty much anything you need.

4 members found this post helpful.

There were a lot of patent restrictions a few years back. Pat was limited on what he could add without getting in trouble. It was up to users to add the required software to keep him in the clear.

Things have changed and he's able to add some additional support that used to be in gray areas in a lot of countries.

Thanks, I will install the package recommended above
Steve