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).

Works with Opera 90.0.4480.80 on Debian 11.4. Thanks. I only changed sudo with su -c "...."