Skip to content

Building on Linux

Jump to bottom
Martin Vallevand edited this page Mar 23, 2026 · 10 revisions

Building on Linux

libmpv SDK for Linux x86_64, built with VAAPI hardware decoding, teletext support and a clean minimal dependency set.

Feature Profile

  • OpenGL render API (mpv_render_context / MPV_RENDER_API_TYPE_OPENGL)
  • VAAPI hardware decoding (Intel/AMD)
  • VDPAU hardware decoding (NVIDIA)
  • ALSA, PulseAudio and PipeWire audio output
  • LuaJIT scripting
  • Blu-ray playback (libbluray)
  • Teletext subtitles (libzvbi — statically linked into avcodec)
  • Wayland + X11 display output
  • Generic x86-64 CPU baseline (SSE2 minimum)
  • No Vulkan, no encoders, no capture devices

MPV Versions

mpv tag FFmpeg libplacebo
v0.41.0 7.1.1 source-built (no Vulkan, no avdevice)
v0.40.0 7.1.1 source-built
v0.39.0 6.1.1 source-built
v0.38.0 6.1.1 source-built
v0.37.0 6.1.1 source-built

Downloads

v0.41.0

File Link
SDK libmpv-sdk-v0.41.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
SDK SHA256 libmpv-sdk-v0.41.0-linux-x86_64.sha256
Runtime libmpv-runtime-v0.41.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
Runtime SHA256 libmpv-runtime-v0.41.0-linux-x86_64.sha256

v0.40.0

File Link
SDK libmpv-sdk-v0.40.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
SDK SHA256 libmpv-sdk-v0.40.0-linux-x86_64.sha256
Runtime libmpv-runtime-v0.40.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
Runtime SHA256 libmpv-runtime-v0.40.0-linux-x86_64.sha256

v0.39.0

File Link
SDK libmpv-sdk-v0.39.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
SDK SHA256 libmpv-sdk-v0.39.0-linux-x86_64.sha256
Runtime libmpv-runtime-v0.39.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
Runtime SHA256 libmpv-runtime-v0.39.0-linux-x86_64.sha256

v0.38.0

File Link
SDK libmpv-sdk-v0.38.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
SDK SHA256 libmpv-sdk-v0.38.0-linux-x86_64.sha256
Runtime libmpv-runtime-v0.38.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
Runtime SHA256 libmpv-runtime-v0.38.0-linux-x86_64.sha256

v0.37.0

File Link
SDK libmpv-sdk-v0.37.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
SDK SHA256 libmpv-sdk-v0.37.0-linux-x86_64.sha256
Runtime libmpv-runtime-v0.37.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
Runtime SHA256 libmpv-runtime-v0.37.0-linux-x86_64.sha256

Build Script

build-libmpv-linux.sh

chmod +x build-libmpv-linux.sh
./build-libmpv-linux.sh v0.41.0 v0.40.0 v0.39.0 v0.38.0 v0.37.0

Prerequisites - Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt-get install -y \
  build-essential nasm yasm pkg-config \
  meson ninja-build cmake git \
  autoconf automake libtool gettext \
  libass-dev libfreetype6-dev libfribidi-dev libharfbuzz-dev \
  libbluray-dev liblcms2-dev libluajit-5.1-dev \
  libfontconfig-dev libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev libpng-dev \
  libva-dev libvdpau-dev
  # Note: libplacebo is built from source by the script - no need to install libplacebo-dev

Remove these dev packages before building to prevent mpv picking them up:

sudo apt-get remove -y libavdevice-dev libcdio-dev libcdio-paranoia-dev

Note on libcurl: If you see a conflict between libcurl4-gnutls-dev and libcurl4-openssl-dev, keep whichever is already installed — both work fine for libmpv. Pin it to prevent conflicts:

sudo apt-mark hold libcurl4-gnutls-dev   # or libcurl4-openssl-dev

Prerequisites - Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S --needed \
  base-devel nasm yasm pkgconf meson ninja cmake git \
  autoconf automake libtool gettext \
  libass freetype2 fribidi harfbuzz \
  libbluray lcms2 luajit \
  fontconfig libjpeg-turbo zlib libpng \
  libplacebo libva libvdpau

Environment Overrides

Variable Default Purpose
FFMPEG6_VERSION 6.1.1 FFmpeg version for mpv < v0.40.0
FFMPEG7_VERSION 7.1.1 FFmpeg version for mpv >= v0.40.0
LIBPLACEBO_VERSION 7.351.0 libplacebo version (source-built, no Vulkan)
ZVBI_VERSION 0.2.44 libzvbi version (source-built, static)
WORK_DIR $PWD/work Scratch space for sources and builds
OUT_DIR $PWD/out Output directory for tarballs
INSTALL_PREFIX $HOME/.local Optional install prefix
JOBS nproc Parallel build jobs

Notes

  • libplacebo is built from source with Vulkan disabled — avoids pulling in libavdevice, libcaca, libSDL2 and FireWire libraries
  • libzvbi is built from source and statically linked into avcodec-NN.so — no extra .so to ship
  • The script is fully resumable — stamp files prevent redundant rebuilds
  • Remove libavdevice-dev and libcdio-dev before building — mpv's meson finds them by scanning /usr/lib directly, bypassing PKG_CONFIG_PATH

Proxmox VM Recommended Settings

Setting Value
CPU 8 cores, type: host
RAM 16 GB, balloon: disabled
Disk 40 GB SSD/NVMe
Guest OS Ubuntu 22.04 or Debian 12

Set balloon: 0 to prevent memory reclaim during linking.

SDK Layout

include/
  mpv/
    client.h
    render.h
    render_gl.h
    stream_cb.h
lib/
  libmpv.so.2
  libmpv.so        -> symlink
  pkgconfig/
    libmpv.pc

Runtime Layout

libmpv.so.2
libavcodec.so.NN
libavfilter.so.NN
libavformat.so.NN
libavutil.so.NN
libswresample.so.N
libswscale.so.N

Install the runtime libs to /usr/local/lib so yauiclient runs directly:

sudo cp libmpv.so* libplacebo.so* /usr/local/lib/
sudo ldconfig
./yauiclient

The source-built libplacebo.so.351 coexists safely with any system libplacebo since the sonames differ.

Clone this wiki locally