In this quick-and-dirty guide we’re building OBS from source, creating a Debian package for Debian 12 / Testing, and installing it. You can find the official build guide here.
Install the needed dependencies
sudo apt install cmake git checkinstall build-essential libmbedtls-dev libasound2-dev libavcodec-dev libavdevice-dev libavfilter-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libfdk-aac-dev libfontconfig-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 libwayland-dev libx11-dev libx264-dev libxcb-shm0-dev libxcb-xinerama0-dev libxcomposite-dev libxinerama-dev pkg-config python3-dev qt6-svg-dev swig libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxcb-shm0-dev libxcb-xinerama0-dev libxcb-composite0-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxcb1-dev libxss-dev librist-dev libsrt-openssl-dev qt6-base-dev qt6-base-private-dev nlohmann-json3-dev libwebsocketpp-dev libasio-dev libva-dev libpipewire-0.3-dev v4l2loopback-dkms ffmpeg
Clone the OBS github repository
git clone --recursive https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio.git
Download and unpack the browser binary
cd obs-studio wget https://cdn-fastly.obsproject.com/downloads/cef_binary_5060_linux64.tar.bz2 tar -xjf cef_binary_5060_linux64.tar.bz2
Create the build directory and enter it
mkdir build ; cd build
Configure OBS
cmake -DUNIX_STRUCTURE=1 -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DBUILD_BROWSER=ON -DENABLE_PIPEWIRE=ON -DENABLE_PULSEAUDIO=ON -DENABLE_HEVC=ON -DENABLE_VST=ON -DENABLE_JACK=ON -DENABLE_AJA=OFF -DCEF_ROOT_DIR="../cef_binary_5060_linux64/" ..
Common build options
-DENABLE_PIPEWIRE=ON -DENABLE_PULSEAUDIO=ON -DENABLE_VST=ON -DENABLE_JACK=ON -DENABLE_ALSA=ON -DENABLE_HEVC=ON -DBUILD_BROWSER=ON -DENABLE_AJA=OFF -DENABLE_VLC=ON -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
Compile OBS
make -j `nproc`
Build the Debian package
sudo checkinstall --default --pkgname=obs-studio --fstrans=no --backup=no --pkgversion="$(date +%Y%m%d)-git" --deldoc=yes
Install the Debian package
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
Run ldconfig
sudo ldconfig
