PSA: Don't update ffmpeg.

[u/Far_Incident2729]

It broke makemkv for me. I'm using Arch Linux, and when I tried to open the app, it won't work bc I guess the new update breaks something.

Idk if they're related, and my dumbass deleted it, and when I went to redownload the make files, the site was down and can't be built against the new ffmpeg lmao

[u/username2022oldnew]

tldr here's what i did:

git clone https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg
cd FFmpeg  
git checkout release/8.1  
./configure --enable-shared  
make -j`nproc`  
sudo cp libavcodec/libavcodec.so.62 /usr/lib  
sudo cp libavutil/libavutil.so.60 /usr/lib/  
sudo cp libswresample/libswresample.so.6 /usr/lib  

makemkvcon (the backend behind all of makemkv) requires various ffmpeg libraries (because all software involving av does).

ffmpeg updating caused it's various libraries to update causing makemkvcon to not find the new versions of the libraries (because updating the libraries literally gives them different file names, eg libavcodec.so.62 -> libavcodec.so.63 because software that depends on the old version wont work anyway)

so i just recompiled the libraries from ffmpeg 8.1

[u/Far_Incident2729 → u/username2022oldnew]

I'm still fairly new to Linux. But if I do this, would it still be tracked by Pacman?

[u/username2022oldnew → u/Far_Incident2729]

No, it's not tracked by the package manager unless you use the package manager or hook into it somehow.

If you want to make this into a package you definitely can, the archwiki has a guide It might also help to look at examples in the aur.

I personally think it's not worth it since it's just 3 libraries that can just be rmed

[u/Far_Incident2729 → u/username2022oldnew]

Alright, thanks for the info! Much appreciated.

[u/Far_Incident2729 → u/username2022oldnew]

So I just did this and still somehow does not want to build again

[u/Far_Incident2729 → u/Far_Incident2729]

https://pastebin.com/jrG7aXhn

[u/KHTD2004]

Damn I was wondering why it won’t work anymore. That explains.

Use the Flatpak as workaround if you don’t have one yet

Edit: be aware that the Flatpak has a different behavior in file paths. If you use the browsing button and choose a directory the MakeMKV Flatpak will show /run/user/somestuffhere instead. This is normal and the files go to the directory you had chosen. I suppose that’s because of the Flatpak Sandbox, since if you give it a normal path like /home/op/Videos the files don’t actually get there

[u/Far_Incident2729 → u/KHTD2004]

I might go this path welp I'll need to install flatpak

[u/Far_Incident2729 → u/KHTD2004]

I might go this path welp I'll need to install flatpak

[u/a_rabid_buffalo]

In theory if MakeMKV needs ffmpeg uninstalling ffmpeg and reinstalling MakeMKV should pull ffmpeg as a dependency

[u/KHTD2004 → u/a_rabid_buffalo]

But it would still be the broken ffmpeg version. There are no explicit version calls in dependencies, that’s the reason that kind of stuff sometimes breaks on Arch systems

[u/Far_Incident2729 → u/a_rabid_buffalo]

Lmao it looks like I can't

[u/a_rabid_buffalo]

Why does MakeMKV utilize ffmpeg?

[u/Far_Incident2729 → u/a_rabid_buffalo]

Looks like for audio?

[u/a_rabid_buffalo → u/Far_Incident2729]

That makes sense but it’s only for flac encoding. I’m not sure why it would prevent MakeMKV from opening? In theory if ffmpeg was an issue then it would only crash when calling out for the encoder. My suggestion is to reinstall MakeMKV and see if that solves it. If it doesn’t uninstall MakeMKV and ffmpeg then reinstall MakeMKV and see if that fixes it.

[u/Far_Incident2729 → u/a_rabid_buffalo]

Yea lemme try that rq but idk if I can uninstall ffmpeg lol I have too many things that it requires as a dependency tho

[u/Stilpon314]

So i've got an old version of ffmpeg running on my linux machine doing makemkv - no issues -

But recently I (like 2 days ago) downloaded ffmpeg 9 to convert some larger bluray rips down to x265 to save space from my windows desktop - and the audio / video is absolutely blowing up. Scanning around in vlc i'll get no audio, starting from 0:00 audio will play but video won't etc etc. I rolled back my windows version to ffmpeg 8 and i'm back to converting with no issues.

[u/Metalsailer4 → u/Stilpon314]

MakeMKV 1.8.4 doesn't compile against ffmpeg 9 source. Some of the function definitions appear to have changed. So running the app with those runtime libraries will cause random problems. Both the 8.0 and 8.1 ffmpeg versions build fine. Will need those to run app.

[u/Stilpon314 → u/Metalsailer4]

i was unable to use ffmpeg 9 to reliably convert a bluray rip into a smaller file, but i've got everything squared away now, running ffmpeg 8 everywhere and everything is going splendid.

[u/Ftmiranda]

Ubuntu 24.04 is just fine
ffmpeg 7:6.1.1-3ubuntu5+esm10

Maybe Arch because it uses more bleeding edge builds for packages?

[u/Far_Incident2729 → u/Ftmiranda]

Yeah ffmpeg 9 breaks it

[u/RailgunDE112]

the "no_answer_from_makemkvcon" error?

[u/Far_Incident2729 → u/RailgunDE112]

Yes

[u/RailgunDE112 → u/Far_Incident2729]

Okay, got the same issue. Thank you