H264 not working after adding non-free codecs?

Metzli · February 3, 2023, 7:56pm

Hello, I’ve got a fresh tumblweed install and I’ve done the following, which used to work for me in the past:

sudo zypper ar -cfp 90 https://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/ packman
sudo zypper dup --from packman --allow-vendor-change

when I try to use Reddit, or some Youtube videos, it just shows me the spinning loading thing on the video.

When I try to use freerdp it complains “Failed to find libav H.264 codec”, which is consistent with the other issues I’m having.

Anybody have any clue why this might not be working any more? I also tried using

sudo zypper in opi
opi codecs

and it was same result (but that was a previous system install).

Sauerland · February 4, 2023, 8:01am

Which Browser do you use?

Post:
zypper se -si libavcodec

Is gstreamer-plugins-bad-codecs installed?

cet · February 4, 2023, 9:08am

I have the same problem ,I did the same steps above.Most of the videos do not play on firefox. Some youtube videos play.Unfortunately I had to install chrome and everything is working in chrome.
ypper se -si libavcodec
Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…

This is what I get from zypper se -si libavcodec
Mine is a fresh install of tumbleweed on 1st of feb.I am new to Suse but not new to linux.

Metzli · February 4, 2023, 11:09am

I’m using the Firefox that ships with Tumbleweed, and


Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S | Name             | Type    | Version   | Arch   | Repository
--+------------------+---------+-----------+--------+-----------
i | libavcodec58_134 | package | 4.4.3-7.5 | x86_64 | packman

I tried installing gstreamer-plugins-bad-codecs and got


The following 4 NEW packages are going to be installed:
  gstreamer-plugins-bad-codecs libfaac0 libmodplug1 libopenh264-7

but it said it finished installation with errors.

hui · February 4, 2023, 11:17am

But now we shall guess what errors you encountered? When you post console output, ALWAYS post the complete initial command, output, last console line…

cet · February 4, 2023, 11:20am

I have gstreamer plugins installed but cannot watch videos on mozilla

Sauerland · February 4, 2023, 11:36am

Maybe you need ffmpeg-5?

I do not know, because I am on Leap 15.4 and not on Tumbleweed.
zypper in libavcodec59

cet · February 4, 2023, 12:42pm

I have ffmpeg-5-mini-libs installed from packman
When I try to install libavcodec59 it says it conflicts with ffmpeg-5 -mini-libs

susejunky · February 4, 2023, 1:04pm

Are you sure you need this?

On my openSUSE Tumbleweed system i have installed

# zypper se -si ffmpeg*
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S  | Name     | Type    | Version    | Arch   | Repository
---+----------+---------+------------+--------+----------------------------
i+ | ffmpeg-5 | package | 5.1.2-15.1 | x86_64 | Packman openSUSE Tumbleweed

# zypper se -si libavcodec*
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S | Name             | Type    | Version     | Arch   | Repository
--+------------------+---------+-------------+--------+----------------------------
i | libavcodec56     | package | 2.8.18-1.49 | x86_64 | Packman openSUSE Tumbleweed
i | libavcodec57     | package | 3.4.9-1.57  | x86_64 | Packman openSUSE Tumbleweed
i | libavcodec58_134 | package | 4.4.3-7.5   | x86_64 | Packman openSUSE Tumbleweed
i | libavcodec59     | package | 5.1.2-15.1  | x86_64 | Packman openSUSE Tumbleweed

cet · February 4, 2023, 2:28pm

Thank you so much

susejunky · February 4, 2023, 3:10pm

I guess only you can really tell whether you need that functionality or not.

HuskerDu · February 4, 2023, 8:43pm

I’m on Tumbleweed and i got no issues with the following

panos@AsusPC:~> zypper se -si ffmpeg
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S  | Name         | Type    | Version     | Arch   | Repository
---+--------------+---------+-------------+--------+----------------------
i+ | ffmpeg-5     | package | 5.1.2-15.1  | x86_64 | Packman Repository
i+ | ffmpegthumbs | package | 22.12.1-1.1 | x86_64 | Main Repository (OSS)

Metzli · February 4, 2023, 10:05pm

The response from susejunky fixed my issue as well.

I dont understand why previous builds of Tumbleweed didn’t require this extra step when using the two methods I described.

osaris · February 9, 2023, 7:33pm

Long time ubuntu user. Trying out suse, haven’t used suse since suse professional 9.1. Sorry guys but so much things are not setup from the start and its a mission to fix it and that’s whats going to stop new users from converting especially if its something as simple as trying to get a youtube livestream to play and spending quite some time googling around and eventually ending up on this forum (SEO issue?). Ok enough ranting.

This fixed my issue with some youtube videos not being playable. Basically I seem to have had the same issue as @cet . Thanks everyone for your posts. It helped!

Initial guide i followed initially SDB:Installing codecs from Packman repositories - openSUSE Wiki

then i followed the suggestions in this post.

sudo zypper install ffmpeg-5

it then prompted that its conflicting with ffmpeg-4 and asked if i want to remove it in which in the end it removed these packages:
ffmpeg-4
ffmpeg-5-mini-libs

many thanks!

KWizzz · February 12, 2023, 8:37pm

Same for section Multimedia Codecs on
https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Tumbleweed

Packman still seems to be unreliable (again after a few days): Yesterday I got unresolvable conflicts on a fresh tumbleweed install when trying to do the vendor switch for multimedia codecs.

hui · February 12, 2023, 8:40pm

Post the terminal output,

KWizzz · February 12, 2023, 9:03pm

Don’t have access to the system the next few days. But the conflict was related to Firefox/Mozilla h264.

Fresh tumbleweed install (3-5 days old). Zypper dup’ed to latest updates. Added packman essentials and tried vendor change as described in link above.
Will post details if problem will still exist once I’m sitting in front of the system.

Thought that it’s an issue related to packman recompiling for latest tumbleweed update. Saw that OBS had build errors yesterday for packman.

Metzli · February 19, 2023, 12:17am

I found simply installing libavcodec59 and choosing option 1 to remove the feature-reduced version of the library was enough to then follow the instructions on the link you’ve got.

But yeah, they need to update the documentation at the very least.

KWizzz · February 19, 2023, 4:48pm

Back at my system to provide the requested terminal output (openSUSE tumbleweed 20230217)

# zypper lr -P -u
# | Alias                            | Name                                   | Enabled | GPG Check | Refresh | Priority | URI
--+----------------------------------+----------------------------------------+---------+-----------+---------+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 | packman-essentials               | packman-essentials                     | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     |   90     | http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/packman/suse/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/Essentials
1 | download.opensuse.org-non-oss    | Main Repository (NON-OSS)              | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     |   99     | http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/non-oss/
2 | download.opensuse.org-oss        | Main Repository (OSS)                  | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     |   99     | http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/
3 | download.opensuse.org-tumbleweed | Main Update Repository                 | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     |   99     | http://download.opensuse.org/update/tumbleweed/
4 | openSUSE-20230206-0              | openSUSE-20230206-0                    | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     |   99     | http://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/
6 | repo-debug                       | openSUSE-Tumbleweed-Debug              | No      | ----      | ----    |   99     | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/tumbleweed/repo/oss/
7 | repo-openh264                    | Open H.264 Codec (openSUSE Tumbleweed) | Yes     | (r ) Yes  | Yes     |   99     | http://codecs.opensuse.org/openh264/openSUSE_Tumbleweed
8 | repo-source                      | openSUSE-Tumbleweed-Source             | No      | ----      | ----    |   99     | http://download.opensuse.org/source/tumbleweed/repo/oss/

# zypper dup --from packman-essentials --allow-vendor-change
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Computing distribution upgrade...

Problem: the installed mozilla-openh264-2.3.1-2.suse1599.1.x86_64 requires 'libopenh264-7(x86-64) = 2.3.1-2.suse1599.1', but this requirement cannot be provided
 Solution 1: deinstallation of mozilla-openh264-2.3.1-2.suse1599.1.x86_64
 Solution 2: keep obsolete libopenh264-7-2.3.1-2.suse1599.1.x86_64
 Solution 3: break mozilla-openh264-2.3.1-2.suse1599.1.x86_64 by ignoring some of its dependencies

Choose from above solutions by number or cancel [1/2/3/c/d/?] (c):

hui · February 19, 2023, 4:56pm

I would chose solution 1. Afterwards you can try to install it again. If it throws the same error, then it’s a deps problem with the openh264 repo…