Most desktop Linux distributions provide packaged binaries for Ekiga, but few provide either the latest release, or more particularly, a working build with h.264 codec support. Here’s how I compiled Ekiga from source to address both of these issues.

The latest release is 3.2.7.

The relevant pieces in order are:

x264 – libraries and encoder for h.264 and avc

ffmpeg – platform for encoding audio and video. Includes libavcodec

libsdl – simple direct media layer providing low-level device access

ptlib – portable tool library

opal – open phone abstraction library

ekiga – Gnome GUI SIP/h.323 application

Configure options for individual packages are shown below, otherwise the general process is:

./configure <opts>

make

sudo make install

X264

I used x264 daily 20090820 (after first installing yasm-0.8.0-1, libgpac/libgpac-dev).

Around 9/2/2009, the API functions changed such that Ekiga fails to load the h.264 module if opal is compiled against the latest release. I installed both, but libgpac may not be required. If there is no assembler, you can build the software anyway by adding the option: –disable-asm to configure.

./configure –prefix=/usr –enable-shared –disable-pthread –enable-mp4-output

FFMPEG

I used ffmpeg 0.5, not the daily checkout or svn HEAD to work around the function change in x264. You have to include –enable-nonfree and –enable-gpl to compile in h.264 support.

./configure –prefix=/usr –mandir=/usr/share/man –enable-shared –enable-nonfree –enable-gpl –enable-avfilter –enable-libmp3lame –enable-libtheora –enable-libx264

You can get a list of available codecs with:

./configure –list-decoders –list-encoders

SDL

./configure –prefix=/usr –mandir=/usr/share/man

PTLIB

I used the latest release, 2.6.5 which I also found on ekiga.net.

./configure –prefix=/usr –mandir=/usr/share/man –enable-plugins –enable-ffvdev –enable-v4l –enable-v4l2 –enable-oss –enable-alsa –enable-shared –enable-sdl

OPAL

Again, the latest release, 3.6.6, from ekiga.net.

./configure –prefix=/usr –localstatedir=/var –mandir=/usr/share/man –enable-shared –enable-h323 –enable-sip –enable-video –enable-theora –enable-plugins

EKIGA

I used the latest release from ekiga.net. I disabled the local discovery component, because I couldn’t see myself needing it.

./configure –prefix=/usr –localstatedir=/var –mandir=/usr/share/man –disable-avahi –enable-gstreamer –enable-h323