New PPA for Installing VLC (3.0.20 Updated) in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

This simple tutorial is going to introduce the new Ubuntu PPA for installing VLC media player as native .deb package format.

VLC is easy to install in Ubuntu through either Snap (available in Ubuntu Software) or Flatpak.

If you don’t like applications run in sandbox, then a third-party PPA can be a good choice besides building from the source tarball.

Rob Savoury is maintaining a PPA with most recent VLC as native .deb package. However, the dependency PPA goes private recently. So, I created a new one for choice.

Install VLC 3.0.20 from PPA:

The package in this unofficial PPA is just a backport from Debian upstream. No change except for the build and run-time libraries depends on your Ubuntu edition.

It seems working good but without well testing. So, there’s always use it as your own risk!

1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open a terminal window. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/vlc

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks for sudo authentication, then hit Enter to continue.

2. For Linux Mint, also run command to refresh package cache, which is done automatically while adding PPA in Ubuntu 20.04 +.

sudo apt update

3. Finally, either update VLC package using ‘Software Updater’ or install/upgrade the package directly by running apt command in terminal:

sudo apt install vlc

Uninstall:

If you found any issue about the VLC package, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/vlc

This command will install ppa-purge tool and use it to purge the PPA, which also downgrade VLC and its dependencies to the stock versions in system repository.

For choice, you may run command to just remove VLC media player:

sudo apt remove --autoremove vlc

Then remove the PPA either from ‘Software & Updates’ -> ‘Other Software’ tab, or by running command in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/vlc

Ji m

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I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu in 2007 and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please comment to let me know if the tutorial is outdated! And, notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via [email protected] Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1

8 responses to New PPA for Installing VLC (3.0.20 Updated) in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04

Fred Krue July 1, 2023 at 11:08 pm

Thanks a lot, I hope you can do the same with HandBrake and mpv, and your readers can donate to you instead of “Rob Savoury”…

Reply
- Ji m July 3, 2023 at 9:38 am
  
  I’ll try when free. But for mpv, there’s already great apt repository exist. See:
  
  https://non-gnu.uvt.nl/debian/jammy/mpv/
  https://fostips.com/install-mpv-media-player-debian/
  
  Reply
  - Fred Krue July 3, 2023 at 4:02 pm
    
    Thank you.
    
    Reply
oswald_c October 14, 2023 at 1:18 pm

An update to VLC 3.0.19 would be greatly appreciated, when you have the time.

Reply
- Ji m October 15, 2023 at 3:06 am
  
  Thanks for reminding about VLC 3.0.19. I didn’t even know the release, since its official website and github stuck at v3.0.18.
  
  And, I’ll update it asap.
  
  Reply
  - oswald_c October 15, 2023 at 11:26 am
    
    Thank you!
    
    Reply
Pete December 24, 2023 at 12:07 am

Oh, I was hoping the vlc package would support RTSP streaming (that Debian removed from their build), but alas…
Any chance you would be willing to enable RTSP support (–enable-live555)? Not sure if it will add any dependency complications.

Reply
- Ji m December 24, 2023 at 2:16 am
  
  I’ll give it try later, and update this comment later.
  
  UPDATE: have built live555 library and enable it in VLC, but not sure if it works. You may try it out via: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuhandbook1/+archive/ubuntu/vlc-unstable/
  
  Reply