GStreamer build on Ubuntu 16.04

Background

GStreamer is used in several RidgeRun training videos. RidgeRun focuses on supporting customers developing embedded products that use GStreamer for their audio/video streaming infrastructure. For the GStreamer training videos it is easier for viewers, when installing GStreamer on Ubuntu, to try out the steps in the video if the viewer can perform the same steps using a Ubuntu development workstation.

Since the training videos typically involve GStreamer plug-ins that are not part of the Ubuntu distribution, all GStreamer code is built from source and kept isolated from the Ubuntu supplied packages to avoid any possible contamination with software based on different versions of the code.

As of May 17, 2016 the master branch of the GStreamer modules were updated to match the recently released Ubuntu 16.04. You can checkout a branch instead of master if you are having trouble building due to the GStreamer modules expecting packages newer than what is available via Ubuntu packages.

References

• GStreamer Developer information

Required packages

After a fresh install of 16.04, you need to install the following packages before building GStreamer.

sudo apt install git autoconf autopoint libtool bison flex gtk-doc-tools
sudo apt install libglib2.0-dev freeglut3 freeglut3-dev yasm libreadline-dev
sudo apt install libgvc6 graphviz-dev # for GstShark

This is the minimal list of required packages. There is also the full list of Ubuntu packages installed by RidgeRun developers.

Build shell environment setup

A prefix is used when installing packages so that your Ubuntu development workstation is not contaminated with mixed versions of incompatible packages.

BUILDDIR=$HOME/projects/gst
PREFIX=$BUILDDIR/local

mkdir -p $PREFIX

GStreamer module build instructions

GST_MODULES="gstreamer gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugins-ugly gst-plugins-bad gst-libav gst-rtsp-server"

for MODULE in $GST_MODULES ; do
    cd $BUILDDIR
    git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/$MODULE
    cd $BUILDDIR/$MODULE
    git checkout master
    PATH=$PREFIX/bin:$PATH PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig ./autogen.sh --prefix $PREFIX && \
    make && \
    make install
done

GStreamer interpipe build instructions

cd $BUILDDIR
git clone git@github.com:RidgeRun/gst-interpipe.git
cd $BUILDDIR/gst-interpipe
git checkout master
PATH=$PREFIX/bin:$PATH PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig ./autogen.sh --prefix $PREFIX && \
make && \
make install

GStreamer Daemon build instructions

cd $BUILDDIR
git clone git@github.com:RidgeRun/gstd-1.x.git gstd
cd $BUILDDIR/gstd
git checkout master
PATH=$PREFIX/bin:$PATH PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig ./autogen.sh && \
PATH=$PREFIX/bin:$PATH PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig ./configure --prefix $PREFIX && \
make && \
make install

GStreamer RTSP Sink build instructions

Sink is a GStreamer plug-in available from RidgeRun.

cd $BUILDDIR
git clone git@github.com:RidgeRun/gst-rtsp-sink.git
cd gst-rtsp-sink/src
git checkout master
PATH=$PREFIX/bin:$PATH PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig ./autogen.sh --prefix $PREFIX && \
PATH=$PREFIX/bin:$PATH PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig GST_LIBS=$PREFIX/lib/gstreamer-1.0 ./configure --prefix $PREFIX && \
make && \
make install

GStreamer Shark instructions

GStreamer Shark is a performance and latency analysis tool available from RidgeRun.

cd $BUILDDIR
git clone git@github.com:RidgeRun/gst-shark.git
cd $BUILDDIR/gst-shark
git checkout feature/add-support-GStreamer-1.8.1 # change to master after release occurs
PATH=$PREFIX/bin:$PATH PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig ./autogen.sh --prefix $PREFIX && \
PATH=$PREFIX/bin:$PATH PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig ./configure --prefix $PREFIX && \
make && \
make install

Verifying build outcome

You need to set the path to the sandbox GStreamer you just built.

export PATH=$PREFIX/bin:$PATH

gst-inspect-1.0 --version
gst-inspect-1.0 interpipesrc

If the above commands run without error, you are good to go.