Building Audacity 2.3.1 on Ubuntu 18.04

These step by step instructions were tested on a clean installation of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

1. Ensure that “Source Code” is enabled in the repository sources:

• Launch “Software and Updates”
  • In the “Ubuntu Software” tab, ensure that the “Source code” checkbox is highlighted.
  • To include support for proprietary formats, “Software restricted by copyright or legal issues (multiverse)” may also be required.

2. Ensure that Ubuntu is up to date:

  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get upgrade

3. Install dependencies:

  sudo apt-get install cmake
  sudo apt-get install python-minimal
  sudo apt-get build-dep audacity

4. Download audacity-minsrc-2.3.1.tar.xz from https://www.fosshub.com/Audacity.html and copy or move it to a convenient location.

• (Note: Do not automatically run / launch the downloaded file as this may create problems with file permissions. Just download it.)

5. Extract the contents of audacity-minsrc-2.3.1.tar.xz:

• Right click on audacity-minsrc-2.3.1.tar.xz and select “Extract here”
  • This will create a folder called audacity-minsrc-2.3.1

6. Right click on the folder audacity-minsrc-2.3.1, and select “Open in Terminal”
7. In the Terminal window, create a new folder called “build”, and navigate into that folder:

  mkdir build
  cd build

8. To aid testing, we will now create a new folder for Audacity’s setting when we test prior to installation:

  mkdir "Portable Settings"

9. Configure the build. If mod-script-pipe is NOT required, omit the “–with-mod-script-pipe” option:

  ../configure --with-lib-preference="local system" --with-ffmpeg="system" --disable-dynamic-loading --with-mod-script-pipe

10. Build Audacity. If your computer has more than one core, use the “-j” option followed by the number of cores available. If your computer has only one core, or if you are unsure, omit the “-j” option. In this example, we use up to 4 cores simultaneously to speed up the build process:

  make -j4

11. Test by launching Audacity:

  ./audacity

12. If all looks good, install:

  sudo make install

13. Test the installation. Note that this will also set up the Audacity user preferences files in a hidden folder “~/.audacity-data/”

Optional - build mod-script-pipe:

1. Navigate to the mod-script-pipe directory:

  cd lib-src/mod-script-pipe

2. Build mod-script-pipe. Note that mod-script-pipe is built in the hidden folder “/.libs/”:

  make

3. To install mod-script-pipe for the current user, the mod-script-pipe files must be copied or moved to ~/.audacity-files/modules/

  mkdir ~/.audacity-files
  mkdir ~/.audacity-files/modules
  cd .libs
  cp * ~/.audacity-files/modules

4. Mod-script-pipe may now be enabled in “Edit menu > Preferences > Modules”.
   Note that Audacity must be closed relaunched before the module is available.