Ubuntu – ffmpeg unmet dependencies

dependenciesffmpegpackage-management

I faced an issue recently when tried to install ffmpeg on my Ubuntu computer. I am running Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit, all latest updates are installed and system runs perfectly, however i feel need in recording my desktop and have read many articles that ffmpeg is one of the best recording tools for it (besides providing packages for video) So I tried to run

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

However i wasn't able to do this because packages have unmet dependencies.
Here is a full text I receive after trying to install package above.

 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:  ffmpeg : Depends:
 libavcodec53 (< 4:0.7.3-99) but it is not going to be installed or
                    libavcodec-extra-53 (< 4:0.7.3.99) but 4:0.8.0.1~ppa2 is to be installed
           Depends: libavdevice53 (>= 4:0.7.3-0ubuntu0.11.10.1) but it is not going to be installed or
                    libavdevice-extra-53 (>= 4:0.7.3) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libavdevice53 (< 4:0.7.3-99) but it is not going to be installed or
                    libavdevice-extra-53 (< 4:0.7.3.99) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libavfilter2 (>= 4:0.7.3-0ubuntu0.11.10.1) but it is not going to be installed or
                    libavfilter-extra-2 (>= 4:0.7.3) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libavfilter2 (< 4:0.7.3-99) but it is not going to be installed or
                    libavfilter-extra-2 (< 4:0.7.3.99) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libavformat53 (< 4:0.7.3-99) but 4:0.8-1u1~ppa2 is to be installed or
                    libavformat-extra-53 (< 4:0.7.3.99) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libavutil51 (< 4:0.7.3-99) but it is not going to be installed or
                    libavutil-extra-51 (< 4:0.7.3.99) but 4:0.8.0.1~ppa2 is to be installed
           Depends: libpostproc52 (< 4:0.7.3-99) but 4:0.8-1u1~ppa2 is to be installed or
                    libpostproc-extra-52 (< 4:0.7.3.99) but it is not going to be installed
           Depends: libswscale2 (< 4:0.7.3-99) but 4:0.8-1u1~ppa2 is to be installed or
                    libswscale-extra-2 (< 4:0.7.3.99) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

This problem hasn't existed on my previous laptop which runs the same Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit as my new one.
Can anyone please help me find a solution without "messing and braking" the whole system?
Thank you for helping in advance.

Best Answer

I'd think you've used this ppa, possibly to install vlc, which installed libavcodec-extra-53 4:0.8.0.1~ppa2 - https://launchpad.net/~n-muench/+archive/vlc

(typically when you see an error like "but blah-blah is to be installed", what that means is 'blah-blah' is already installed

If the ppa is still enabled, (doubtful), then run sudo apt-get update

If it's not currently enabled then re-enable or add back, then run above command & you'll be able to install ffmpeg or libav-tools which provides avconv

avconv will be the preferred way to run 'ffmpeg' as sooner or later the ffmpeg binary will no longer be provided in Debian/Ubuntu

If you decide that using backported ffmpeg shared libs isn't what you want then after enabling the ppa run ppa-purge as suggested. (The ppa isn't proving all packages that depend on the shared ffmpeg libs so some apps or plugins could have issues

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