Need Guidance: Cross-Compiling MPV on Ubuntu 24.04

[SiddaramMavinamar]

Important Information

• mpv version: v0.38.0
• Platform version: Ubuntu 24.04
• Meson version: 1.3.2

Reproduction Steps

git clone https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv.git
cd mpv
meson setup build --cross-file crossfile.txt -Dlibmpv=true
meson compile -C build

got error in compilation steps

Expected Behavior

The build process should complete successfully with all dependencies properly resolved and compiled, resulting in a functional cross-compiled version of MPV.

Actual Behavior

Managed to start the build but faced a new error with missing features.h. and so on

Log File

I would appreciate detailed steps or documentation on how to:
Set up the cross-compilation environment for MPV on Ubuntu 24.04.
Install and configure all necessary tools and dependencies.
if any suggest

NOTE : Successfully built MPV natively on Linux. but looking for Need to set -Dgpl=false for the Windows build.

crossfieltext.txt
c = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc'
cpp = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++'
ar = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-ar'
strip = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-strip'
pkg-config = 'pkg-config'
exe_wrapper = 'wine64'
windres = '/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-windres'

[host_machine]
system = 'windows'
cpu_family = 'x86_64'
cpu = 'x86_64'
endian = 'little'

I carefully read all instruction and confirm that I did the following:

• I tested with the latest mpv version to validate that the issue is not already fixed.
• I provided all required information including system and mpv version.
• I produced the log file with the exact same set of parameters, and conditions used in "Reproduction Steps".
• I produced the log file while the behaviors described in "Actual Behavior" were actively observed.
• I attached the full, untruncated log file.

[kasper93]

I've updated docs to reflect better current state of things, see compile-windows.md.

As for your issue. Remove pkg-config from cross file. Or configure pkg-config correctly for your sysroot. By default it will detect libraries from your build machine, which is not correct for cross-compilation.

See https://mesonbuild.com/Cross-compilation.html#defining-the-environment for details, specifically pkg_config_libdir and sys_root.

[SiddaramMavinamar]

I've updated docs to reflect better current state of things, see compile-windows.md.

As for your issue. Remove pkg-config from cross file. Or configure pkg-config correctly for your sysroot. By default it will detect libraries from your host system, which is not correct for cross-compilation.

See https://mesonbuild.com/Cross-compilation.html#defining-the-environment for details, specifically pkg_config_libdir and sys_root.

I have changed my pkg-config path to mingw pkg but getting error like
Not found libavcodec and remaining libraries

It seems I have to write my own pc file for mingw which is not feasible for me since am totally new to linux and same time am working on mys2 but able to generate mpv. Exe but that's not static linked

Thanks please suggest better way

[kasper93]

Not found libavcodec and remaining libraries

Yes, you need to compile everything yourself when cross-compiling so the libraries are available. Meson can do it for you.

It seems I have to write my own pc file for mingw which is not feasible for me since am totally new to linux and same time am working on mys2 but able to generate mpv. Exe but that's not static linked

You don't have to write own .pc, they would be generate when ffmpeg is installed for example to custom cross-compiling root.

Thanks please suggest better way

Please refer to compile-windows.md I linked before. It should have all information you need. If something is unclear or missing, please let me know, I will update the document.

Generally it is possible to create static library in any build environment, whether it is MSYS2, cross-compilation from Linux or MSVC Clang build. There are minor differences in setup process, but this is all Meson doing heavy lifting.

[SiddaramMavinamar]

Not found libavcodec and remaining libraries

Yes, you need to compile everything yourself when cross-compiling so the libraries are available. Meson can do it for you.

It seems I have to write my own pc file for mingw which is not feasible for me since am totally new to linux and same time am working on mys2 but able to generate mpv. Exe but that's not static linked

You don't have to write own .pc, they would be generate when ffmpeg is installed for example to custom cross-compiling root.

Thanks please suggest better way

Please refer to compile-windows.md I linked before. It should have all information you need. If something is unclear or missing, please let me know, I will update the document.

Generally it is possible to create static library in any build environment, whether it is MSYS2, cross-compilation from Linux or MSVC Clang build. There are minor differences in setup process, but this is all Meson doing heavy lifting.

Hi @kasper93 ,

Thank you for your suggestion! I have successfully created the MPV player and managed to launch it. However, I'm facing an issue when invoking the player from a WPF application; the app crashes. Interestingly, the application does not crash when using another MPV player, which leads me to suspect either memory consumption issues or missing dependencies.

From my observation, I found that the Vulkan header might be a potential issue. Below are the details:
libplacebo| subprojects/libplacebo/src/meson.build:179: WARNING: Building without any GLSL compiler (shaderc, glslang), but with APIs required that require one (vulkan, d3d11). This build is very likely to be very limited in functionality! (for more info attached Screenshots)

d3d11 : NO
javascript : YES
libmpv : YES
lua : NO
opengl : YES
vulkan : NO
wayland : NO
x11 : NO

Here is my cross file where I need to add the windres and dlltool configuration:
[binaries]
c = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc'
cpp = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++'

ar = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-ar'
strip = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-strip'
windres = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-windres'
dlltool = 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-dlltool'
exe_wrapper = '/usr/lib/wine/wine64'

[properties]
needs_exe_wrapper = true

[host_machine]
system = 'windows'
cpu_family = 'x86_64'
cpu = 'x86_64'
endian = 'little'

Could you please advise if I missed any dependencies or configurations that might be causing this issue?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[kasper93]

the app crashes

Is not very specific, you have to debug your application and fix the issues.

WARNING: Building without any GLSL compiler (shaderc, glslang), but with APIs required that require one (vulkan, d3d11). This build is very likely to be very limited in functionality!

Well, yes. You have to compile and link shaderc and spriv-cross for d3d11 and Vulkan support.

[SiddaramMavinamar]

the app crashes

Is not very specific, you have to debug your application and fix the issues.

Regarding my previous question, to clarify, I am able to launch MPV player from this link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpv-player-windows/files/. However, I am unable to achieve the same result when building from source, leading me to wonder if the numerous warnings during the build process might be the cause.

WARNING: Building without any GLSL compiler (shaderc, glslang), but with APIs required that require one (vulkan, d3d11). This build is very likely to be very limited in functionality!

Well, yes. You have to compile and link shaderc and spriv-cross for d3d11 and Vulkan support.

As you suggested, I need to compile and link shaderc and spriv-cross for d3d11 and Vulkan support. I have done the following steps and compiled, though I got these errors and warnings:

i have followed this but not bale to compile

meson wrap install vulkan-headers
meson wrap install lua
meson wrap install luajit

WARNING: Building without any GLSL compiler (shaderc, glslang), but with APIs required that require one (vulkan, d3d11). This build is very likely to be very limited in functionality!

harfbuzz| WARNING: Project specifies a minimum meson_version '>= 0.55.0' but uses features which were added in newer versions:
harfbuzz| * 1.3.0: {'fs.relative_to'}
harfbuzz| Subproject harfbuzz finished.
libass| subprojects/libass/meson.build:251: WARNING: nasm was not found; ASM functions are disabled. Install nasm >= 2.10 for a significantly faster libass build.
libplacebo| WARNING: Library target 'placebo' has 'name_prefix' set. Compilers may not find it from its '-lplacebo' linker flag in the 'libplacebo.pc' pkg-config file.
libplacebo| WARNING: Library target 'placebo' has 'name_prefix' set. Compilers may not find it from its '-lplacebo-uninstalled.pc' pkg-config file.

Unicode callbacks (you want at least one)
Builtin : YES
Glib : NO
ICU : YES

Font callbacks (the more the merrier)
Builtin : YES
FreeType : NO

Dependencies used for command-line utilities
Cairo : NO
Chafa : NO

Additional shapers
Graphite2 : NO
WebAssembly (experimental): NO

Platform shapers (not normally needed)
CoreText : NO
DirectWrite (experimental): NO
GDI/Uniscribe : NO

Other features
Documentation : NO
GObject bindings : NO
Cairo integration : NO
Introspection : NO
Experimental APIs : NO

Testing
Tests : NO
Benchmark : NO

libass 0.17.2

Font providers   : DirectWrite and GDI (Win32)
ASM optimizations: NO

libplacebo 7.349.0

Optional features
d3d11 : NO
dovi : YES
gl-proc-addr: YES
glslang : NO
lcms : YES
libdovi : NO
opengl : YES
shaderc : NO
vk-proc-addr: NO
vulkan : YES
xxhash : NO

mpv 0.38.0-UNKNOWN

d3d11                 : NO
javascript            : YES
libmpv                : YES
lua                   : NO
opengl                : YES
vulkan                : NO
wayland               : NO
x11                   : NO

I would like to express my gratitude for your assistance so far. sorry for asking more question and thanks for your help"
Is there any better way to resolve these warning or build dependence please assist me like below you have donehere https://github.com/kasper93/mpv/blob/win_docs/DOCS/compile-windows.md

[SiddaramMavinamar]

Hi @kasper93 ,
Thanks to your help, I've managed to integrate the mpv media player into my WPF app seamlessly, without requiring any fixes or alterations. The instructions provided here to be sufficient to build MPV
https://github.com/kasper93/mpv/blob/win_docs/DOCS/compile-windows.md

However, I encountered an issue while trying to pass certain arguments. Specifically, I received an error stating: "Error parsing option no-osc (option not found)"
To address this, I need to either remove the no-osc option from the arguments or find an alternative solution to achieve the desired functionality ( I mean while building MPV if any please suggest Lua dependency installed but not found while building).

string mpvArgs = """ + rel_video_path + """ +
" --force-window=yes" +
" --fullscreen" +
" --no-osc --no-osd-bar" +
" --hwdec=auto-safe" +
" --input-media-keys=no " +
" --no-input-terminal " +
" --no-taskbar-progress " +
" --no-input-cursor " +
"--video-unscaled=no" +
" --loop=inf --keep-open";

[rboxeur]

I worked on a project like this one a couple years ago. Outdated documentation https://github.com/rboxeur/mpv-i686-cross-compiling-MinGW32-Doc/blob/master/index.rst
BUT here is the guid I followed
https://github.com/qyot27/mpv/blob/extra-new/DOCS/crosscompile-mingw-tedious.txt

[SiddaramMavinamar]

for luajit, you can from root mpv directory do meson wrap install luajit and it will be able to use it. For Vulkan, you have to compile shaderc externally. There are way to do it with meson, but I wouldn't recommend it, but if you look at ci/build-win32.ps1 there is working example of that.

For LuaJIT and even Lua, I used meson wrap install, but it's failing to install dependencies. As I found, the wrap files are in the subprojects folder but weren't extracted and installed. I got the following error:
meson.build:732:5: ERROR: Problem encountered: Lua enabled but no suitable Lua version could be found!
I did the following:
meson wrap install vulkan-headers
meson wrap install lua
meson wrap install luajit

These above files are already installed in root /usr/bin but it's not working for cross compile

Any suggestions / idea you have used, if you know how to add like ffmpeg or libplacebo kind

[kasper93]

meson wrap install luajit and meson configure -Dlua=luajit should work. Generally it is like puzzles, you need to figure out how to build everything, there is not much we can do to help, you have all information needed. Also you could try https://github.com/shinchiro/mpv-winbuild-cmake which is all-in-one solution. Beware they are building GPL builds by default.

[SiddaramMavinamar]

meson wrap install luajit and meson configure -Dlua=luajit should work. Generally it is like puzzles, you need to figure out how to build everything, there is not much we can do to help, you have all information needed. Also you could try https://github.com/shinchiro/mpv-winbuild-cmake which is all-in-one solution. Beware they are building GPL builds by default.

Okay, thank you for your kind help; your solution is the best. I also tried this all-in-one solution: https://github.com/shinchiro/mpv-winbuild-cmake. However, I feel it doesn't provide much information.

Anyhow, I am close to meeting my requirements. The reason I'm focusing on Lua is that I am not able to pass the --no-osc argument. Enabling Lua with -Dlua=enabled results in the error mentioned above.

[kasper93]

Try -Dlua=luajit, to force specific version.

[SiddaramMavinamar]

Thank you
Let me try and update you the same

[Andarwinux]

Just use mpv-winbuild to build mpv via GHA. you can find prebuilt LGPL builds.

[zhongfly]

If you want a lgpl(gpl=false) libmpv, go to release and download the files with 'lgpl'

[zhongfly]

If you need a mpv.exe under lgpl license , that doesn't make any sense. From what I know of the gpl license, a non-GPL application can call a GPL executable at the command line

[SiddaramMavinamar]

Thank you for your help. I need to build mpv.exe with -Dgpl=false. I've tried every possible way, and while the method in this link

• https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/DOCS/compile-windows.md suggested was helpful, I encountered an issue with Lua not compiling, resulting in the error: "Error parsing option no-osc (option not found)".

The build from the link -https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpv-player-windows/files/
you provided works fine, except that I need to compile with -Dgpl=false.

any input please

[zhongfly]

I think you didn't know what's meaning of lgpl or -Dgpl=false, and https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpv-player-windows/files/ is not my build.

[SiddaramMavinamar]

General Public License, a common free software license. Setting -Dgpl=false can be used to signify that GPL-licensed components should not be used or that certain features contingent on GPL code should be disabled.

could you please explain how to build full pledged MVP with -Dgpl=false