How to Install FFmpeg on Debian 11

To install FFmpeg on Debian 11 – Stretch, you need to be logged in as a root user.  The FFmpeg package uses the apt package manager for installation. It’s available in the official Debian repository.

First, update the package list using:

apt update

After this we can execute the following command to install FFmpeg:

apt install ffmpeg

If you’re using Debian 8 – Jessie, FFmpeg won’t be available in the official repository. However, the Debian multimedia repository can be used to install the codex.

We will have to add the Debian multimedia repository. To add this, we need to edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list. This file contains the list of repositories APT uses. To edit this file, you can use a terminal editor such as nano or vi.

Open the file using the following command and press I (Insert) to start editing:

vi /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the lines listed below to the file:

deb http://www.deb-multimedia.org jessie main non-free

deb-src http://www.deb-multimedia.org jessie main non-free

# jessie-backports

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main

To save your edit on the vi editor press Esc. To exit the editor press : and execute q!

Next we will have to install the deb-multimedia-keyring package. First, we will update, then install, and update one more time. This makes sure that all the changes are correctly updated and noted.

apt update

apt install deb-multimedia-keyring

apt update

Once you’re done, install the FFmpeg package using:

apt install ffmpeg

To validate the installation on Debian, use the following command:

ffmpeg -version