Interfacing Linux: OBS With A Working Browser

Today I’m going to show you how to build OBS with a browser that doesn’t spite-crash to the desktop. Special thanks to arjenpdevries for the workaround.

Install the needed dependencies (consult the OBS build Wiki for your distribution)

sudo apt install \
             build-essential \
             cmake \
             git \
             libmbedtls-dev \
             libasound2-dev \
             libavcodec-dev \
             libavdevice-dev \
             libavfilter-dev \
             libavformat-dev \
             libavutil-dev \
             libcurl4-openssl-dev \
             libfdk-aac-dev \
             libfontconfig1-dev \
             libfreetype6-dev \
             libgl1-mesa-dev \
             libjack-jackd2-dev \
             libjansson-dev \
             libluajit-5.1-dev \
             libpulse-dev \
             libqt5x11extras5-dev \
             libspeexdsp-dev \
             libswresample-dev \
             libswscale-dev \
             libudev-dev \
             libv4l-dev \
             libvlc-dev \
             libx11-dev \
             libx264-dev \
             libxcb-shm0-dev \
             libxcb-xinerama0-dev \
             libxcomposite-dev \
             libxinerama-dev \
             pkg-config \
             python3-dev \
             qtbase5-dev \
             libqt5svg5-dev \
             swig \
             libxcb-randr0-dev \
             libxcb-xfixes0-dev \
             libx11-xcb-dev \
             libxcb1-dev \
             libxcb-xinput-dev \
             qt5ct \
             libvlc-dev

Download the CEF binary and decompress:

wget https://cdn-fastly.obsproject.com/downloads/cef_binary_3770_linux64.tar.bz2
tar -xjf ./cef_binary_3770_linux64.tar.bz2

Clone the git repository:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio.git

Change into obs-studio and create a build directory:

cd obs-studio 
mkdir build && cd build

Set the QT variable:

export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME="qt5ct"

Configure OBS:

cmake -DUNIX_STRUCTURE=0 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="${HOME}/obs-studio-portable" -DBUILD_BROWSER=ON -DCEF_ROOT_DIR="../../cef_binary_3770_linux64" ..

Compile and install OBS:

make -j4 && make install

Launch OBS:

cd ~/obs-studio-portable/bin/64bit/
./obs

And now you have a portable version of OBS with a working browser that can run alongside your existing install.

Note: You will need to add export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=”qt5ct” to your .bashrc (and reboot) unless you really like typing it in each time you start OBS.