OBS Studio

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OBS Studio is free software for video recording and live streaming.

Built with Qt, C and C++ and maintained by the OBS Project, the software provides real-time device capture, scene composition, recording, broadcasting and source capture functions with presets for streaming to popular services such as YouTube, Twitch, Instagram and Facebook.

In 2014, development started on a rewrite of the software, known as OBS Multiplatform, which included a larger feature set, multi-platform support and broader plugin support. As of 2016, the software was rebranded as OBS Studio, with the older OBS Classic being deprecated.

Installation

USE flags

USE flags for media-video/obs-studio Software for Recording and Streaming Live Video Content

+alsa	Add support for media-libs/alsa-lib (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture)
browser	Enable browser source support via (precompiled) CEF.
decklink	Build the Decklink plugin.
fdk	Build with LibFDK AAC support.
jack	Add support for the JACK Audio Connection Kit
lua	Enable Lua scripting support
mpegts	Enable native SRT/RIST mpegts output.
nvenc	Add support for NVIDIA Encoder/Decoder (NVENC/NVDEC) API for hardware accelerated encoding and decoding on NVIDIA cards (requires x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers)
pipewire	Build with PipeWire support.
pulseaudio	Add sound server support via media-libs/libpulse (may be PulseAudio or PipeWire)
python	Build with scripting support for Python 3.
qsv	Build with Intel Quick Sync Video support.
sndio	Build with sndio support.
speex	Build with Speex noise suppression filter support.
test-input	Build and install input sources used for testing.
truetype	Add support for FreeType and/or FreeType2 fonts
v4l	Enable support for video4linux (using linux-headers or userspace libv4l libraries)
vlc	Build with VLC media source support.
wayland	Enable dev-libs/wayland backend
websocket	Build with WebSocket API support.

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2025-06-02 22:45 More information about USE flags

For a standard streaming setup that uses a webcam, PulseAudio, has a NVIDIA graphics card and integrates with major streaming services one might add to /etc/portage/package.use :

FILE /etc/portage/package.use/obs-studio

media-video/obs-studio lua nvenc pulseaudio speex v4l

Emerge

Install media-video/obs-studio:

root #emerge --ask media-video/obs-studio

Additional software

Audio

OBS Studio can be paired with JACK, Pulseaudio or PipeWire for audio.

VLC

OBS Studio supports integration with VLC media player services. VLC support behaves much like the ordinary media source, however in addition it accepts a list of files to play as well as provides a way to play every path, URL or media source that VLC is able to play.

Usage

Invocation

OBS Studio can be invoked from the command line as follows:

user $obs --help

--help, -h: Get list of available commands.

--startstreaming: Automatically start streaming.
--startrecording: Automatically start recording.
--startreplaybuffer: Start replay buffer.
--startvirtualcam: Start virtual camera (if available).

--collection <string>: Use specific scene collection.
--profile <string>: Use specific profile.
--scene <string>: Start with specific scene.

--studio-mode: Enable studio mode.
--minimize-to-tray: Minimize to system tray.
--portable, -p: Use portable mode.
--multi, -m: Don't warn when launching multiple instances.

--verbose: Make log more verbose.
--always-on-top: Start in 'always on top' mode.

--unfiltered_log: Make log unfiltered.

--disable-updater: Disable built-in updater (Windows/Mac only)

--disable-high-dpi-scaling: Disable automatic high-DPI scaling

--version, -V: Get current version.

Removal

Unmerge

Remove media-video/obs-studio:

root #emerge --ask --depclean --verbose media-video/obs-studio

Troubleshooting

Pipewire audio

Install pipewire plugin for OBS.

Wayland

Shortcuts

As it's known, some wayland DE (i.e. KDE plasma) doesn't have a good support for shortcuts with wayland .

For KDE plasma, you can use obs-studio with websocket USE flag enabled and control obs via sending commands to its websocket interface.

Check this project for the feature for KDE plasma.

Video capturing

If OBS Studio isn't able to capture windows or the fullscreen using Pipewire on a Wayland compositor, set the pipewire and dbus USE flags for media-video/obs-studio and media-video/pipewire respectively:

FILE /etc/portage/package.use

media-video/obs-studio pipewire
media-video/pipewire dbus

Re-emerge these packages to apply the USE flag changes:

root #emerge --ask media-video/obs-studio media-video/pipewire

Emerge gui-libs/xdg-desktop-portal-wlr:

root #emerge --ask gui-libs/xdg-desktop-portal-wlr

Note
This applies to window managers. If you're using a desktop environment such as KDE Plasma or GNOME, make sure to emerge the appropriate variant from the XDG/xdg-desktop-portal page instead.

The screencast and gstreamer and gles2 global use flags may also be required for some desktop environments.

FILE /etc/portage/make.confmake.conf file

USE="screencast gstreamer gles2"

You may also need the package qtwebkit:

root #emerge --ask dev-qt/qtwebkit

Virtual camera

For virtual camera support within OBS Studio, emerge the v4l2loopback kernel module:

root #emerge --ask media-video/v4l2loopback

For OBS Studio to initialize the kernel module, give it the appropriate permissions, this can be done by running it as root or using a polkit agent.

External Resources

• OBS Tutorials - Tips and tricks for OBS Studio.
• OBS Project - The OBS Project main site.
• OBS Documentation - Detailed information for developers and users alike.