DVDStyler on Linux: Install from Your Distro or Build from Source

There is no official DVDStyler binary for Linux — and that is normal for this project. Linux users install DVDStyler from their distribution’s software repository, or compile the official source tarball. This guide covers both routes honestly, including the one platform where the current source is known to be broken. Windows and Mac downloads are on the main download page.

Option 1: Install from your distribution’s repository (recommended)

DVDStyler is packaged by the major distributions, so the package manager is the easiest and best-integrated route:

• Debian / Ubuntu / Mint: sudo apt update && sudo apt install dvdstyler
• Fedora: sudo dnf install dvdstyler (from the RPM Fusion repository, which you may need to enable first).

One honest caveat: the version in a distribution repository depends on that distribution’s release cycle and may lag behind the current stable 3.2.1 or the 3.3 Beta line. For authoring DVDs that is rarely a problem — the DVD-Video format itself has not changed — but check the packaged version if a guide you are following mentions a recent change.

Option 2: Build the source tarball

The project publishes its source on SourceForge as DVDStyler-3.2.1.tar.bz2 (9,040,634 bytes, MD5 5f30d86d149c048214b02619e1e4cb38) for the stable release; the 3.3b4 Beta source is published alongside the Beta.

1. Download and extract the tarball: tar xjf DVDStyler-3.2.1.tar.bz2, then enter the extracted directory.
2. Install the build prerequisites from your distribution: a C++ toolchain (build-essential on Debian/Ubuntu), the wxWidgets development libraries, and the FFmpeg development libraries, plus the authoring/burning helper tools the program drives at runtime (dvdauthor and a burning backend).
3. Configure and build in the usual autotools pattern: ./configure, then make, then sudo make install.
4. If ./configure stops on a missing library, the error names it — install the matching -dev/-devel package and re-run. Exact package names differ between distributions, which is why the repository route above is recommended first.

A fact about FreeBSD, as a warning sign

The FreeBSD port of DVDStyler 3.3.b4 is currently marked BROKEN because it fails to build against FFmpeg versions newer than 6. That is stated here as a plain fact about the port — and as practical advice for Linux builders too: if a source build fails around FFmpeg, the FFmpeg version pairing is the first suspect, and the distribution package (which pins working combinations) is the safer route.

Which route should you choose?

• Repository package — for almost everyone: maintained, integrated, and DVD authoring does not need the newest code.
• Source build — if your distribution’s package is missing or too old for your needs, and you are comfortable resolving build dependencies.
• Something else entirely — if you mainly need the finished disc quickly, the Windows build also runs fine in a virtual machine on a Linux host, using the installers from our Windows download page.

Whichever route you take, the program itself is the same free GPLv2 authoring tool: menus, slideshows, multiple subtitle and audio tracks, and direct burning. See the version history for how the stable and Beta lines relate.