libraries heading in prefs not present

audacity 2.3.3 on ubuntu studio 20.04. wanted to check ffmpeg and, when i go to the audacity preferences, there is no heading for ‘libraries’ as everything i’m seeing online says there should be. what’s up with that?

babag

Audacity is built for Windows and macOS by the Audacity Team with dynamic loading of FFmpeg. The preference setting indicates where the FFmpeg / LAME library is located.

Audacity is built for Linux by the package maintainer for the distribution. They may chose static linking to FFmpeg and LAME, or they may choose to disable FFmpeg and LAME support. Unless they build with dynamic loading for at least one of FFmpeg / LAME, the preference will not be present.

To check if LAME is enabled, try exporting as MP3. If you can do that, then LAME is enabled.

To check if FFmpeg is enabled, try exporting as .M4A or .AAC, If you can export as either of those formats, then FFmpeg is enabled.