Hi guys
I'm sure many of you know or already heard about Avidemux, this handy tool for basic video editing, transcoding/transmuxing, filtering, trimming, concatenating audio & video files and much more ! A proud successor of VirtualDub !
I was very surprized when I realized that there is no official package for Linux. Just 2 appImage releases for Debian and RedHat but only for amd64 architecture. Thus nothing for RPIs or arm64.
However it's very likely such an app could be used and liked by Pi users, don't you think ? Obviously there's nothing Avidemux does that can't be done with FFmpeg but sometimes it's nice to use a GUI, right ?
Consequently I decided to build it myself although it's really not my domain of expertise and it's a bit frustrating 'cos I almost managed to do it - most of the app works - but the small issues I experience are way beyond my knowledge and I could use some help here to make it perfectly usable on Raspberries.
To start with, here's a screenshot of Avidemux built with Qt5 on a RPI5 with Trixie (Wayland/64bits). As you can see it looks good !
Before I explain the issues I encountered, I would like to say to that right after building it and setting it, I could :
- open and play video files
- trim and export
- use markers, search for Iframes, black frames and so on
- use the jog wheel
- control the volume
- transcode and apply filters
- preview live filters being applied
Basically, imho, everything seems to work well (obviously I could not try all codecs or all muxers) and that's very promising...
except it only works once !!! Boooo !
Yes when I close Avidemux and re-open it, although I could set the correct (?) display settings and save them, then it switches from "display RGB" to "display QtG???" (Qt..something - can't read) and I don't seem to be able to change this anymore and from there, the video is not visible anymore. It plays, we can hear it, the vu-meters move but the video is pure black. I tried exporting though and it works anyway. It's just a display issue !
And here I reach my knowledge limits. I suspect something's wrong with the hardware acceleration or an incorrect display mode or the system libraries or whatever ! I just entered a world where I'm lost.
Avidemux was initially written for Windows and does not come with optimization for Linux or arm64 but it seems we're so close to be able to use it !!! It would be such a great tool to have on Raspberry Pis !
Maybe I did not built it with the right options ? Or maybe it needs a little help, some patches or this magical parameter that forces it to run with the correct environnement ? I don't know but it seems so close ! GRRR !
Here's what I did :
First I went to the website :
https://avidemux.sourceforge.net/
I tried the appImage but it's not for arm64
So I downloaded the sources and started to install manually all the dependencies instructed here :
https://www.avidemux.org/admWiki/doku.p ... nstall_2.6
Then I realized that there is also a github with newer instructions :
https://github.com/mean00/avidemux2
So I went for the git clone option and followed the instructions given there.
There is a bash script which takes care of installing all the dependencies,except one that's not found :
- libaften-dev (an AC3 encoder) which I did not dare to install from :
https://pkgs.org/download/libaften-dev (but I postponed this for later - I don't need AC3 to start with)
https://debian.pkgs.org/13/multimedia-m ... 4.deb.html
Then I try building with the bootStrap script. First time with make and Qt5.Build went well and I could start experimenting. Took me a while to find the correct settings for display. It was not perfect but it worked !
I did not use the .deb option to install. Just used the other provided script to execute from the build folderThis way the terminal shows the errors and instructions in real time. It seemed ok to me. At least I couldn't spot red warnings or fatal errors.
Then I started over with Qt6 and default options. It failed before the end. I probably don't have what it takes (me or raspiOS)So I tried again with Qt5 and ninja this time instead of make. Also used the option "--with-system-libmp4v2" this time to see the difference for codecs and muxers.Built went well again but I experience the same issues with display. Using ninja or make does not seem to make a difference.
I noticed this:
when display is RGB it sort of works (there are glitches, display is not perfect but by stretching the window it refreshes the entire frame)
when display is QtG??? then video is black
But I couldn't find a way to alter which mode is set for display.
I hope someone can see the light here... I can't... Any help welcome. I'm available to test, evaluate, experiment, report bugs but I'm clearly not technical enough for this alone.
I'll add more screencaps of Avidemux below so you can see all it can offer.
Bien à vous !
I'm sure many of you know or already heard about Avidemux, this handy tool for basic video editing, transcoding/transmuxing, filtering, trimming, concatenating audio & video files and much more ! A proud successor of VirtualDub !
I was very surprized when I realized that there is no official package for Linux. Just 2 appImage releases for Debian and RedHat but only for amd64 architecture. Thus nothing for RPIs or arm64.
However it's very likely such an app could be used and liked by Pi users, don't you think ? Obviously there's nothing Avidemux does that can't be done with FFmpeg but sometimes it's nice to use a GUI, right ?
Consequently I decided to build it myself although it's really not my domain of expertise and it's a bit frustrating 'cos I almost managed to do it - most of the app works - but the small issues I experience are way beyond my knowledge and I could use some help here to make it perfectly usable on Raspberries.
To start with, here's a screenshot of Avidemux built with Qt5 on a RPI5 with Trixie (Wayland/64bits). As you can see it looks good !
Before I explain the issues I encountered, I would like to say to that right after building it and setting it, I could :
- open and play video files
- trim and export
- use markers, search for Iframes, black frames and so on
- use the jog wheel
- control the volume
- transcode and apply filters
- preview live filters being applied
Basically, imho, everything seems to work well (obviously I could not try all codecs or all muxers) and that's very promising...
except it only works once !!! Boooo !
Yes when I close Avidemux and re-open it, although I could set the correct (?) display settings and save them, then it switches from "display RGB" to "display QtG???" (Qt..something - can't read) and I don't seem to be able to change this anymore and from there, the video is not visible anymore. It plays, we can hear it, the vu-meters move but the video is pure black. I tried exporting though and it works anyway. It's just a display issue !
And here I reach my knowledge limits. I suspect something's wrong with the hardware acceleration or an incorrect display mode or the system libraries or whatever ! I just entered a world where I'm lost.
Avidemux was initially written for Windows and does not come with optimization for Linux or arm64 but it seems we're so close to be able to use it !!! It would be such a great tool to have on Raspberry Pis !
Maybe I did not built it with the right options ? Or maybe it needs a little help, some patches or this magical parameter that forces it to run with the correct environnement ? I don't know but it seems so close ! GRRR !
Here's what I did :
First I went to the website :
https://avidemux.sourceforge.net/
I tried the appImage but it's not for arm64
So I downloaded the sources and started to install manually all the dependencies instructed here :
https://www.avidemux.org/admWiki/doku.p ... nstall_2.6
Then I realized that there is also a github with newer instructions :
https://github.com/mean00/avidemux2
So I went for the git clone option and followed the instructions given there.
There is a bash script which takes care of installing all the dependencies,
Code:
bash createDebFromSourceUbuntu.bash --deps-only- libaften-dev (an AC3 encoder) which I did not dare to install from :
https://pkgs.org/download/libaften-dev (but I postponed this for later - I don't need AC3 to start with)
https://debian.pkgs.org/13/multimedia-m ... 4.deb.html
Then I try building with the bootStrap script. First time with make and Qt5.
Code:
bash bootStrap.bash --enable-qt5I did not use the .deb option to install. Just used the other provided script to execute from the build folder
Code:
./run_avidemux_template_qt5.shThen I started over with Qt6 and default options. It failed before the end. I probably don't have what it takes (me or raspiOS)
Code:
bash bootStrap.bash --enable-qt6Code:
bash bootStrap.bash --with-ninja --enable-qt5 --with-system-libmp4v2I noticed this:
when display is RGB it sort of works (there are glitches, display is not perfect but by stretching the window it refreshes the entire frame)
when display is QtG??? then video is black
But I couldn't find a way to alter which mode is set for display.
I hope someone can see the light here... I can't... Any help welcome. I'm available to test, evaluate, experiment, report bugs but I'm clearly not technical enough for this alone.
I'll add more screencaps of Avidemux below so you can see all it can offer.
Bien à vous !
Statistics: Posted by dwam — Fri Nov 28, 2025 10:44 am