New Directions for Building HandBrake SVN

Update (5/15/09): I have working binaries available in my PPA repository. Directions for adding it to your package manager are available here.

A couple of months ago, the HandBrake devs implemented some major changes to the build procedure for HandBrake from the project's SVN repository. I'm not really sure why they did this, but it seems to have cut a couple of dependencies, which is nice*. Here's the new method that worked for me on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex and 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope (adapted from their build instructions in the readme).

Step 1: download the dependencies
In a terminal, type:

sudo aptitude install subversion build-essential m4 wget autotools-dev yasm autoconf intltool libtool libbz2-dev zlib1g-dev libglib2.0-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libgtk2.0-dev libhal-dev libhal-storage-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev automake1.9 libnotify-dev libwebkit-dev

Update (6/18/09): as of svn 2550, libgtkhtml-3.14-dev was replaced by libwebkit-dev.
Users of OpenSuSE may need to download the additional dependencies zypper and in to build the CLI, as well as gtkhml2 and gtkhtml2-devel to build the GUI. Users of Red Hat/Fedora or derivatives may need to install the package groups "Development Tools," "Development Libraries," "X Software Development," and "GNOME Software Development," as well as zlib-devel, bzip2-devel, dbus-glib-devel, hal-devel, gtkhtml3-devel, gstreamer-devel, and gstreamer-plugins-base-devel.

Step 2: download the source from HandBrake's SVN repository
in a terminal, type:

svn checkout svn://svn.handbrake.fr/HandBrake/trunk hb-trunk

This will download a bunch of stuff and finish by telling you which revision you have checked out.

Step 3: switch to your newly created directory
in a terminal, type:

cd hb-trunk

Step 4: prepare the source for building
in a terminal, type:

./configure --launch

This command should take care of most of the remaining steps, i.e. making a scratch directory and compiling the source for both the CLI and GUI interfaces.

Step 5: install the GTK GUI
in a terminal, type:

cd build/gtk ; sudo make install

In you experienced any errors during Steps 4 or 5, you can attempt to run through the build functions manually:
In a terminal, type:

rm -rf build ; mkdir build ; cd build

then:

../configure ; make

and finally:

cd gtk ; make ; sudo make install

*Interestingly, the build process no longer invokes/requires jam, which had always been a vestigial requirement left over from HandBrake's roots in the venerable BeOS.

How to Compile HandBrake GTK GUI from SVN

UPDATE (3/4/09): These directions no longer work on code checked out from the SVN. I've left them here for future reference (and for folks attempting to build the stable 0.9.3 code), but updated build instructions are available here.

Update (5/15/09): I have working binaries available in my PPA repository. Directions for adding it to your package manager are available here.

This information has been gleaned from my and others' posts on the ubuntu forums. I have reproduced it here for ease of access and to avoid having to read all 14+ (at the time of this writing) pages of that thread. This process requires at least a standard Intrepid Ibex (8.10) Ubuntu installation, but it can certainly be adapted for other distros (users of OpenSuSE will need to download the additional dependencies zypper and in to build the CLI, as well as gtkhml2 and gtkhtml2-devel to build the GUI). If you just want precompiled binaries, see my post here.

Update (11/9/08): there's a new dependency added as of the last couple of days: libgtkhtml3.14-dev. I added it to the list, but be sure you install it if you've suddenly run into problems. Update (11/24/08): 2 more dependencies--libgstreamer0.10-dev and libgstreamerplugins-base0.10-dev. Update (2/2/09): another dependency--libdbus-glib-1-dev

Step 1: download the dependencies (in a terminal, type):

sudo aptitude install libgtk2.0-dev libglib2.0-dev libhal-storage1 libhal-storage-dev libhal-dev automake build-essential jam libtool subversion zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev lib64bz2-1.0 libbz2-1.0 xmlto texinfo subversion gfortran doxygen libsdl1.2-dev gfortran-multilib gcc-multilib g++-multilib libesd0-dev libgtk1.2-dev libfftw3-dev electric-fence linux-kernel-devel libgtkhtml3.14-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev yasm intltool libdbus-glib-1-dev

Step 2: install libdvdcss2 from the medibuntu repository (all on one line):

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

then type (again, all on one line):

wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update

and finally:

sudo aptitude install libdvdcss2

Step 3: check out the latest HandBrake code from the project's SVN repository:

svn co svn://svn.handbrake.fr/HandBrake/trunk HandBrake

Step 4: navigate to the newly created HandBrake directory:

cd HandBrake

Step 5: compile the HandBrakeCLI binary:

make

Step 6: navigate to the gtk directory:

cd gtk

Step 7: prepare the source to compile the GUI against the newly built CLI binary:

./autogen.sh

Step 8: compile and install the GUI:

make && sudo make install

This should add all the relevant menu shortcuts and so forth on a standard Ubuntu install. Leave me a comment if you have any questions/problems and I'll try to help.