How to Install FFmpeg on a cPanel Server (Dedicated & VPS Only)

Important: FFmpeg installation requires root SSH access and is only available for Dedicated and VPS hosting customers. Shared hosting environments cannot install system-wide FFmpeg.

FFmpeg is a powerful audio/video processing toolkit required by many CMS platforms, video upload scripts, and media conversion tools. Modern servers use the official RPM Fusion or EPEL repositories instead of the old ffmpeg.i386 package (which is obsolete).

✔ Modern Installation Method (Recommended)

For most CentOS, Almalinux, Rocky Linux, or CloudLinux servers running cPanel, use these commands:

1. Enable RPM Fusion (Free) Repository

yum install epel-release -y
yum install https://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/el/rpmfusion-free-release-7.noarch.rpm -y

2. Install FFmpeg and tools

yum install ffmpeg ffmpeg-devel -y

This installs FFmpeg with full codec support for video encoding, decoding, thumbnails, and conversion.

Alternative Installation for CloudLinux 8 / AlmaLinux / Rocky Linux

yum install epel-release -y
yum install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/el/rpmfusion-free-release-8.noarch.rpm -y
yum install ffmpeg ffmpeg-devel -y

Verify the Installation

ffmpeg -version
which ffmpeg

You should see version details and the binary path, confirming FFmpeg is correctly installed.

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⚠ Legacy Installation Command (Obsolete)

This older method used to be suggested:

yum install ffmpeg.i386

This is now outdated and should not be used.

• The .i386 package no longer exists on modern systems.
• Modern servers use RPM Fusion repositories instead.
• Installing FFmpeg manually from unknown sources may cause security issues.

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Common Issues & Fixes

• “No package ffmpeg available”
  → Install EPEL + RPM Fusion first.
• Permission issues in web apps
  → Ensure the binary path is correct (e.g., /usr/bin/ffmpeg) and update your script settings.
• PHP cannot use FFmpeg
  → Make sure open_basedir or disabled_functions does not block FFmpeg.

Security Notes

• Only install FFmpeg from trusted repos such as RPM Fusion.
• Avoid outdated or custom FFmpeg builds unless required.
• Keep the server updated to receive codec/security patches.