Create a directory where the installation files will be downloaded:
$ mkdir ~/Tools $ cd ~/Tools
Update your package index:
sudo apt-get update
Install the dependencies for x264 and FFmpeg:
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall git cmake libfaac-dev libjack-jackd2-dev libmp3lame-dev libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev libsdl1.2-dev libtheora-dev libva-dev libvdpau-dev libvorbis-dev libx11-dev libxfixes-dev libxvidcore-dev texi2html yasm zlib1g-dev
Get gstreamer:
$ sudo apt-get install libgstreamer0.10-0 libgstreamer0.10-dev gstreamer0.10-tools gstreamer0.10-plugins-base libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
Get yasm:
$ sudo apt-get install yasm
Download x264 and install it:
$ git clone git://git.videolan.org/x264 $ cd x264 $ ./configure --enable-static --enable-shared $ make $ sudo make install $ cd ..
Get the libs necessary for FFmpeg installation:
$ sudo apt-get install libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev libtheora-dev libvorbis-dev
Download FFmpeg and install it:
$ git clone --depth 1 git://git.videolan.org/ffmpeg $ cd ffmpeg $ ./configure --enable-gpl --enable-libfaac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb \ --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 \ --enable-nonfree --enable-postproc --enable-version3 --enable-x11grab --enable-shared $ make $ sudo make install $ cd ..
Install gtk:
$ sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-dev
Install libjpeg:
$ sudo apt-get install libjpeg62 libjpeg62-dev
Install v4l:
Get the latest version of v4l from here. The version used in this installation is 0.8.5
$ wget http://www.linuxtv.org/downloads/v4l-utils/v4l-utils-0.8.5.tar.bz2 $ tar -xvf v4l-utils-0.8.5.tar.bz2 $ cd v4l-utils-0.8.5 $ make $ sudo make install $ cd ..
Get the python libraries:
$ sudo apt-get install python-numpy python-sphinx python-dev
Finally install OpenCV:
Get the latest version from here. The version used in this installation is 2.3.1
$ wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/opencvlibrary/opencv-unix/2.3.1/OpenCV-2.3.1a.tar.bz2 $ tar -xvf OpenCV-2.3.1a.tar.bz2 $ cd OpenCV-2.3.1 $ mkdir Build $ cd Build $ cmake -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE -D BUILD_NEW_PYTHON_SUPPORT=ON -D BUILD_EXAMPLES=ON .. $ make $ sudo make install
If you want to see all the options while building OpenCV, use "ccmake .." instead of the above mentioned cmake command. Done! Hope that helped.