Install Latest VLC in Ubuntu 16.04

Update

There is now an unofficial PPA for VLC 3 on Ubuntu 16.04

Instructions to install:


Overview

While it is possible to install VLC from the Canonical repositories or even a PPA, the latest version available through those channels for Ubuntu 16.04 (and derivatives) is 2.2. To get the absolutely latest version (3.0.1 as of this writing) it is necessary to use a Snap or Flatpack install.

These instructions will walk you through the process of installing Flatpak, the VLC app, and creation of a script that can be used as the default launcher for video files from within a file manager.

Flatpak Installation

The first thing we need to do is install the flatpak package and add the flathub package repository.

VLC Installation

We can now install the VLC package.

Default Launcher

To be able to use the newly installed package as the default application from within a file manager, we first need to create a script.

The following creates a ~/bin/vlc.sh script

Next, open a file manager, right click on a video file and select the script as the associated application while marking it as the default action.

Uninstall

To uninstall the VLC package

To remove the flathub repository
To uninstall flatpak itself

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *