Linux Installation Guide

System Requirements

Item	Requirement
Distribution	Ubuntu 20.04+ / Debian 11+ / Fedora 38+ / other mainstream distributions
Architecture	x86_64 / amd64
Disk space	5 GB
Dependencies	libwebkit2gtk-4.1, libmpv (built-in player), libfuse2 (required for AppImage)

Installation Steps

Ubuntu / Debian (.deb)

1. Go to the download page and download aividlab_*_amd64.deb.
2. Run the following in a terminal:

sudo dpkg -i aividlab_*_amd64.deb

3. If you see a "dependency problems" message, continue with:

sudo apt -f install

4. Once finished, type aividlab in a terminal to launch the app, or start it from the application menu.
5. Finally, install the libmpv dependency required by the built-in player:

sudo apt install -y libmpv2

On Ubuntu 20.04 / Debian 11, the package is named libmpv1.

Fedora / RHEL / openSUSE (.rpm)

1. Go to the download page and download aividlab*.rpm.
2. Run the following in a terminal:

sudo dnf install ./aividlab*.rpm

On openSUSE, use sudo zypper install ./aividlab*.rpm.

3. Once finished, type aividlab in a terminal to launch the app, or start it from the application menu.
4. Finally, install the libmpv dependency required by the built-in player:

sudo dnf install -y mpv-libs

Other Distributions (.AppImage)

1. Go to the download page and download aividlab_*_amd64.AppImage.
2. Run the following in a terminal:

chmod +x aividlab_*_amd64.AppImage
./aividlab_*_amd64.AppImage

3. If you get a FUSE-related error, install libfuse2 first:

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install -y libfuse2

# Arch / Manjaro
sudo pacman -S --needed fuse2

4. Finally, install the libmpv dependency required by the built-in player (choose the command for your distribution):

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install -y libmpv2

# Arch / Manjaro
sudo pacman -S --needed libmpv

# Fedora
sudo dnf install -y mpv-libs

Notes

• The AppImage needs to be executable. If double-clicking does nothing, right-click the file in your file manager → "Properties" → enable "Allow executing as a program", or simply run chmod +x in a terminal and then launch it.
• How to upgrade. For .deb, download the new version and run the install command again. For .rpm, run dnf install again to upgrade in place. For the AppImage, download the new version and replace the old file. Your settings and data are kept automatically.

Uninstall

• If you installed the .deb package:

sudo apt remove aividlab

• If you installed the .rpm package:

sudo dnf remove aividlab

• AppImage users: just delete the .AppImage file.
• App data and settings are stored in ~/.local/share/com.aividlab.app and can be deleted manually after uninstalling; downloaded videos are kept in ~/Downloads/AIVidLab — keep or remove them as you like.

FAQ

• No write permission for the download directory? Files are downloaded to ~/Downloads/AIVidLab by default. You can change this under "Settings → Downloads".

Fedora: video plays with sound but no picture?

Applies to: on Fedora (.rpm install), videos play with sound but no picture, or the app's environment check reports missing video codecs. Ubuntu / Debian are not affected — their GStreamer ships with a full ffmpeg decoder by default.

Cause: for patent reasons, Fedora's official repositories do not provide H.264 video decoding anywhere in the stack:

• gstreamer1-plugin-libav is built against ffmpeg-free (the patent-free build, which excludes the H.264 decoder);
• the noopenh264 package installed by default is just a placeholder stub (its libopenh264.so is only about 11 KB and always fails to initialize), existing only so dependency resolution succeeds — it cannot actually decode.

As a result, a stock Fedora system has no usable H.264 decoder at all — audio (AAC) works fine while video decoding fails, which shows up as "sound but no picture". This is not a bug in the app or the package; the system simply lacks the decoding capability.

Fix (run in order, requires sudo):

# 1. Enable Fedora's official Cisco openh264 repository
sudo dnf config-manager set fedora-cisco-openh264.enabled=1

# 2. Install the real openh264; --allowerasing replaces the noopenh264 stub
sudo dnf install openh264 --allowerasing

# 3. (Optional, recommended) Install the common GStreamer plugins
sudo dnf install gstreamer1-plugin-libav gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free gstreamer1-plugins-good

note

Fedora 40 and earlier use dnf4, so the first command should be sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled fedora-cisco-openh264.

Afterwards, restart the app before playing anything. If the app's environment check fails, the fix command shown in the dialog is the same as above and can be copied and run directly.

Verify (with any local H.264 mp4 file):

gst-launch-1.0 -v filesrc location=your-video-file.mp4 ! decodebin ! fakesink

If you no longer see "failed to initialize the support library" or Failed to create OpenH264 decoder, everything is working.

Need HEVC (H.265) and other formats? openh264 only covers H.264. For HEVC and other codecs, install the full ffmpeg from RPM Fusion (first enable its free/nonfree repositories as described on their website):

sudo dnf install ffmpeg --allowerasing