Are you trying to install OBS on Linux and Windows? 

This guide is for you.

OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is a robust, free, and open-source software for live streaming. This program is available on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Recently, we received a request from one of the customers to install OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) on his server. He was a teacher and wanted to conduct online classes for his students.

OBS is a free and open-source video recording and live streaming software program that is written in C, C ++, and Qt, which is mainly used for streaming and recording videos.

Here at Ibmi Media, as part of our Server Management Services, we regularly help our Customers to perform Windows related installations.

In this context, we shall look into how to install OBS on Linux and windows.

Steps to install OBS on Linux Windows and macOS ?

To get OBS installed, follow the steps given below.

1. Update Linux Server

First, we update our server packages by running the below command.

# apt update && apt -y upgrade

 2. Install FFMpeg

OBS requires the implementation of FFmpeg to be installed (FFmpeg is a tool that can record, convert, and stream audio and video files.)

Initially, we verify if it is installed on our system, we will use the -version flag with the ffmpeg command.

# /home/user# ffmpeg -version

As a result, it showed the below output.

Command' FFmpeg' not found, but can be installed with:

apt install ffmpeg

So now, we can install the FFmpeg using the command.

# /home/user# apt install ffmpeg

Now, again we can check and ensure if FFmpeg is installed and available using the FFmpeg command with the -version flag.

# /home/user# ffmpeg -version

After installing FFmpeg, we can now install OBS. For that, first, we shall add the corresponding repository from where the software will be downloaded and installed.

# /home/user# add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio Latest stable release of OBS Studio

After adding the repository in Ubuntu, we update the package manager to ensure that we have the latest packages available.

# /home/user# apt-get update

Finally, we install OBS by running the below command.

# /home/user# apt install obs-studio

How to Install OBS on Windows 10 ?

i. First, we will go to the OBS website and download the appropriate version for Windows x64. In order to install OBS with all the associated libraries and codecs, we need to select the full version.

ii. After downloading it, we run the Windows executable to begin the installation. An installation prompt appears where we click on the Next button.

iii. After that, we accept the license agreement and click Next.

iv. Then we select the location for the installation and then click the Install button.

The installation will display its progress.

v. In the final installation screen, we can choose to either launch the software or simply click the Finish button to complete the set up.

That's it, the installation is now completed.

How to Install OBS on MacOS Catalina ?

This is similar to the Windows one. 

i. First, we go to the OBS website, selecting and then downloading the suitable version for our MacOS.

ii. After downloading, we click the Start installation button.

iii. Once it completes, it will automatically unzip, and a new frame will open. We click on the icon at the bottom of the toolbar to begin the installation.

iv. Now, the installer will ask for permission to use the microphone and also offers to set up the necessary settings.

Finally, the OBS is installed.

Common OBS installation errors

Now let's discuss some of the common OBS installation errors that we have come across.

1. Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Normally, this error occurs while executing the command sudo apt-get install obs-studio:

[ibmimedia@server]$ sudo apt-get install obs-studio
[sudo] password for ibmimedia:
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:

obs-studio : Depends: obs-plugins (= 22.0.3+dfsg1-1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libobs0 (= 22.0.3+dfsg1-1) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libpython3.7 (>= 3.7.0) but it is not going to be installed
Error: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Solution:

We set the repo explicitly to unstable, as a 32-bit version of this package does not exist in stable yet.

For that, we run the below command.

apt -t unstable install obs-studio

2. Unable to locate package obs-studio

This error occurs while installing OBS:

[ibmimedia@server]$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
[sudo] password for ibmimedia:
Latest stable release of OBS Studio
More info: https://launchpad.net/~obsproject/+archive/ubuntu/obs-studio
Press [ENTER] to continue or ctrl-c to cancel adding it
gpg: keyring `/tmp/tmpkf9hu8ew/secring.gpg’ created
gpg: keyring `/tmp/tmpkf9hu8ew/pubring.gpg’ created
gpg: requesting key F425E228 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: /tmp/tmpkf9hu8ew/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key F425E228: public key “Launchpad PPA for obsproject” imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1 (RSA: 1)
OK
[ibmimedia@server]$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install obs-studio
Hit:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/obsproject/obs-studio/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit:2 http://ports.ubuntu.com xenial InRelease
Hit:3 http://ports.ubuntu.com xenial-updates InRelease
Hit:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-pi-flavour-makers/ppa/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit:5 http://ports.ubuntu.com xenial-security InRelease
Hit:6 http://ports.ubuntu.com xenial-backports InRelease
Reading package lists… Done
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Error: Unable to locate package obs-studio

Solution:

In order to resolve this error, we install OBS manually.

To download the 64-bit version, we run:

$ wget https://launchpad.net/~obsproject/+archive/ubuntu/obs-studio/+files/obs-studio_0.16.2.1-544~xenial_amd64.deb -P ~/Downloads

Then we install the package which has been downloaded into the ~/Downloads folder. For that, we run:

$ sudo apt install ~/Downloads/obs-studio_0.16.2.1-544~xenial_amd64.deb

If it is the 32-bit package, we download it with:

$ wget https://launchpad.net/~obsproject/+archive/ubuntu/obs-studio/+files/obs-studio_0.16.2.1-544~xenial_i386.deb -P ~/Downloads

 3. Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

This error occurs while installing OBS using PPA. Here is how the error message appears.

Warning: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/kirillshkrogalev/ffmpeg-next/ubuntu/dists/vivid/main/binary-amd64/Packages 404 Not Found
Warning: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/kirillshkrogalev/ffmpeg-next/ubuntu/dists/vivid/main/binary-i386/Packages 404 Not Found
Error: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Solution:

This error occurs if FFmpeg is conflicting during installation.

So, we run the following command to remove FFmpeg PPA:

$ sudo apt-add-repository –remove ppa:kirillshkrogalev/ffmpeg-next
$ sudo apt-get update

Alternatively, we use PPA-purge as a safer option:

$ sudo apt-get install ppa-purge &&
$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:kirillshkrogalev/ffmpeg-next

Then we install OBS:

$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ffmpeg obs-studio

[Still not able to install OBS on Linux? – We are here to help you. ]