Can't record with OBS Studio on Framework 16 + Fedora 39

Framework Laptop 16 Linux
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Installed OBS Studio via Software app on Framework 16, but when I click “Start Recording” I get the error “Failed to open OpenH264: Encoder not found”. This happens whether or not I start OBS with the “Launch using Discreet Graphics Card” option. OBS settings lists OpenH264 Encoder as the only Video Encoder option.

Framework 16 with discreet Graphics Card
Fedora 39 6.8.11-200.fc39.x86_64
OBS Studio 30.0.0

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The software app probably shows multiple install sources for OBS - rpm and flatpak. If I remember correctly, it defaults to flatpak. You most likely installed the flatpak and are experiencing issues with its sandboxing.

Try uninstalling OBS from the software app, and then run the command

sudo dnf in obs-studio

from a terminal.

This will install the rpm package (which is not sandboxed).

You can also install the rpm package from the software app, but I forgot where the source menu was or what it looked like (I have done some significant customisation on my Fedora install). Using dnf will guarantee you get the unsandboxed version.

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also, if you want hardware accelerated encoding, you will want the freeworld versions of mesa-va-drivers and mesa-vdpau-drivers, which you can get from rpm fusion. fedora ships with stripped-down versions of the video acceleration and vdpau drivers because of patent infringement concerns.

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if you do get the required dependencies for hardware acceleration, you need to go to obs settings > output and set output mode to advanced to get the vaapi encoders to show up

edit: fix typo

edit 2: once you get this set up, you can select the device used for vaapi from the same settings menu. it shouldn’t matter whether or not you run obs on the discrete gpu or not.

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Thank you @CauseOfBSOD, each of your comments helped me get OBS working and with hardware-accelerated encoding. Much appreciated!

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