Enable H.264 codec support for Opera browser

opera_x264_support.sh

#!/bin/bash


# Author: Marco Carletti
# Date: May 2022
# Version: 0.2.0


# Thanks to everyone for comments, suggestions, fixes and testings!


# Tested on
# ---------
#
# Ubuntu 18.04
#
# v0.1.0
#       62.0.3331.116
#       63.0.3368.66
#
# Ubuntu 20.04
#
# v0.1.0
#       70.0.3728.95
#       73.0.3856.284
#       74.0.3911.107
#       74.0.3911.232
#
# v0.2.0
#       87.0.4390.25


# Release notes
# -------------
#
# v0.2.0   Smarter use of curl options to fix failing permalink. Special thanks to `dotarr` for the fix!
#          Last update: May 18, 2022
#
# v0.1.0   It is basically a cleaned version of what you can find in this post from Opera forum:
#          https://forums.opera.com/topic/34659/opera-linux-browser-h-264-support-through-x264-open-source-codec
#          Last update: Aug 18, 2020


# Retrieve latest FFMPEG release version.
# We get the complete url pointing to the latest zip package via the curl command.
#
# -L             If the server reports that the requested page has moved to a different location
#                this option will make curl redo the request on the new place.
#
# -o <file>      Write output to <file> instead of stdout.
#
# -s             Silent or quiet mode. Don't show progress meter or error messages.
#
# -w <format>    Make curl display information on stdout after a completed transfer. The format is
#                a string that may contain plain text mixed with any number of variables.
URL=`curl -L -o /dev/null -s -w %{url_effective} https://github.com/iteufel/nwjs-ffmpeg-prebuilt/releases/latest`
FFMPEGVER=${URL%\"*}
FFMPEGVER=${FFMPEGVER##*/}
FFMPEGZIP=${FFMPEGVER}-linux-x64.zip


# Download library from complete url and save it locally.
# Archive is extracted in the working directory and immediately deleted.
#
# -L (see above)
# -O             Write output to a local file named like the remote file we get.
#                Only the file part of the remote file is used, the path is cut off.
curl -L -O https://github.com/iteufel/nwjs-ffmpeg-prebuilt/releases/download/${FFMPEGVER}/${FFMPEGZIP}
unzip ${FFMPEGZIP}
rm ${FFMPEGZIP}


# Overwrite Opera libffmpeg (requires root privileges).
# Install (ie. copy) the latest version of the library in the system library folder.
# Before overwriting the Opera library file, make a copy... So we can manually rollback if we messed up things :)
sudo mv libffmpeg.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libffmpeg_h264.so
sudo mv /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/libffmpeg.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/libffmpeg.so.orig
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libffmpeg_h264.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/libffmpeg.so

Need to run the script after updating Opera to ver. 63.0.3368.66

Still working fine with ubuntu 20.04 and opera 70.0.3728.95

Hi! There's an even simpler way that survives updates:

curl -L -O https://github.com/iteufel/nwjs-ffmpeg-prebuilt/releases/download/${FFMPEGVER}/${FFMPEGZIP}
unzip ${FFMPEGZIP}
rm ${FFMPEGZIP}
sudo mkdir /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/lib_extra
sudo mv libffmpeg.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/lib_extra

Opera will automatically use the version in lib_extra and the mod will survive updates. So you'll only need to do it once.

Thanks a lot! This script works also on Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS (Focal Fossa) 64-bit + Opera 73.0.3856.284.

Thanks!! It worked perfectly for me on Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS (Focal Fossa) 64-bit + Opera 74.0.3911.107.

Thanks :) Still works on Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS, Opera 74.0.3911.232

I found that the extraction of variables from URL into FFMPEGVER and FFMPEGZIP had started failing pointing to the redirection between /latest and the permalink to the numbered version no longer being output by curl, adding some switches appeared to fix:

URL=$(curl -Ls -o /dev/null -w %{url_effective} https://github.com/nwjs-ffmpeg-prebuilt/nwjs-ffmpeg-prebuilt/releases/latest)
FFMPEGVER=${URL%\"*}
FFMPEGVER=${FFMPEGVER##*/}
FFMPEGZIP=${FFMPEGVER}-linux-x64.zip
curl -L -O https://github.com/iteufel/nwjs-ffmpeg-prebuilt/releases/download/${FFMPEGVER}/${FFMPEGZIP}
unzip ${FFMPEGZIP}

sudo mv libffmpeg.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/opera/lib_extra

Thanks everyone! I've updated the script with your notes and fixes. I've also tested the script with the latest Opera version (currently, it is 87.0.4390.25).