Installing ExifTool on Ubuntu 2018

Are you struggling to get your Android phone's DCIM folder synced with your Ubuntu Server over SFTP? If so, you're not alone. Since updating to VIMP 3.2, I've been experiencing some issues that have left me scratching my head. That's why I'm reaching out to the community in hopes of finding a solution.

To set things up, my wife and I use an Android phone (Moto G5 Plus) and make sure we're running qt-faststart and copying it to /usr/local/bin/. We then navigate into the tools/ folder within the FFmpeg directory and run the configure command: `./configure -enable-gpl -enable-version3 -enable-shared -enable-nonfree -enable-postproc -enable-libfaac -enable-libmp3lame -enable-libopencore-amrnb -enable-libopencore-amrwb -enable-libtheora -enable-libvorbis -enable-libvpx -enable-libx264 -enable-libxvid`. We also install MPlayer/mencoder for VIMP versions less than 3.1.9.

The next step is to install some codecs using `apt-get install libsdl1.2-dev zlib1g-dev libfaad-dev libfaac-dev libgsm1-dev libtheora-dev libvorbis-dev libspeex-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev libopencore-amrnb-dev libxvidcore-dev libxvidcore4 libmp3lame-dev libjpeg62 libjpeg62-dev`. We also need to install x264 using `git clone`.

Before we begin, let's do some housekeeping and remove any existing packages: `cd /usr/src && apt-get remove x264 ffmpeg mplayer mencoder`. Next, we'll install the easy-to-use editor joe and some tools: `apt-get install joe make automake g++ bzip2 unzip patch subversion git yasm`.

Finally, on both systems, we need to extend the search path in /etc/ld.so.conf using `joe /etc/ld.so.conf`. In most cases, you can simply copy and paste the code into your shell and execute the commands as root.

This article provides a step-by-step guide on how to install transcoding tools under Ubuntu 14.04. For an update to VIMP 3.2.0+, you'll also need to install exiftool. I hope this helps resolve any issues you may be experiencing with your Android phone's DCIM folder sync.

Exiftool ubuntu 2018