The VideoLAN Forums

The SNAP-ed version doesn't do it for me, and installing using apt installs a crippled VLC version (see https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=160838). My only chance was to do an install from source code. For the most part that went well, except one major problem. Here's my installation process:

• downloaded latest stable source, unzipped it into a temporary subfolder VLCTemp of my Downloads folder;
• $ sudo apt-get build-dep vlc
• $ cd /path/to/VLCTemp
• $ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/ (i.e. install VLC into "usr/local/" as recommended by the standard Linux guidelines)
• $ sudo make install
• deleted temporary folder VLCTemp.

So I ended up with a VLC executable file in /usr/local/bin/. Click on it, and nothing happens. Launch it form the terminal yields some error message about some library not found ... or whatever.* So I dig up the VLCTemp installation kit from the trash bin, and fire up the VLC executable in there. And whaddya know, VLC works like a charm!

Can anyone explain to me what in tarnation is going on???? VLC was explicitly (and emphatically) installed in /usr/local/, so why would I need the installation kit from the temporary folder in order to run it??

*"error while loading shared libraries: libvlc.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory"

maybe you have an issue with your ldconfig, see

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/474 ... -libraries

you can also try to run something like
to see which library are used when opening your VLC installation

Thanks for the reply. See if you can make sense of the stuff below (I have to split it across multiple posts):

Part 2:

Part 3: What am I doing wrong??

chubinou had correctly guessed that your ldconfig is wrong, or rather it is not set up for you to install under /usr/local

chubinou had correctly guessed that your ldconfig is wrong, or rather it is not set up for you to install under /usr/local

Thank you! How do I fix that though? What am I doing wrong? I am following the instructions on the official Wiki page (https://wiki.videolan.org/UnixCompile/) to the letter (see above)!

That's nothing to do with VLC compilation as such, and it works on most distribution by default, so of course it's not going to be on that page.

> Thank you! How do I fix that though?

it's explained in the stack overflow link I put in my first post

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/474 ... -libraries

check you /etc/ld.so.conf, run ldconfig

Thank you! Getting closer!

My /etc/ld.so.conf file contains only one line, namely "include /etc/ld.so.conf.d/*.conf," so it looks like I need to add .. what? What exactly do I need to add? Here are what I see as the main choices:

1. 2. 3. 4.
So which one of these? Or is it that some of these lines should not include the "include" keyword?

Update: I ended up adding the following lines to /etc/ld.so.conf:


and that did it. Thanks for the help! Now, if any of these lines is not strictly required, I would appreciate your letting me know: I'd feel better knowing I have the minimal working version of /etc/ld.so.conf.

/usr/local/lib should be enough