How to install *latest* yt-dlp on Ubuntu Server 24.04.1 LTS?

[Bo Berglund]

On Mon, 10 Feb 2025 15:38:19 -0600, Keith via ubuntu-users
<ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

>> I don't understand this explanation but wonder what I could do now that the
>> cook-book command did not work?
>> 
>> And I have never programmed in python so I don't know how that is done either.
>> 
>> 
>
>Unless you're wanting to gain experience with installing python programs 
>in a python virtual environment (there's plenty of howto's for that), 
>I'd forgo doing that and either download the yt-dlp static binary and 
>stick it in /usr/local/bin:
>
>https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux
>

Thanks,
what happens if I do the following to get it into my own bin dir instead:

cd $HOME/bin
wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/download/2025.01.26/yt-dlp_linux
mv yt-dlp_linux yt-dlp
chmod +x yt-dlp

I will now have the file under the correct name and in my own $HOME environment,
but will it have the necessary environment present so it can run properly?
I have seen that when installing from apt there are lots of other stuff that
comes along...

However, after doing the above but into a dir in my $HOME/ and symlinking to
$HOME/bin/yt-dlp I tried it by checking the version and that is what I need:
2025.01.26

But still the result was a no-go:


$ yt-dlp -o HP-keyboard.mp4 https://youtu.be/gYRDjLb41R8
[youtube] Extracting URL: https://youtu.be/gYRDjLb41R8
[youtube] gYRDjLb41R8: Downloading webpage
[youtube] gYRDjLb41R8: Downloading ios player API JSON
[youtube] gYRDjLb41R8: Downloading android player API JSON
[youtube] gYRDjLb41R8: Downloading player 9c6dfc4a
WARNING: [youtube] gYRDjLb41R8: nsig extraction failed: You may experience
throttling for some formats
         n = a-kRtl8v40CZFsFQ ; player =
https://www.youtube.com/s/player/9c6dfc4a/player_ias.vflset/en_US/base.js
WARNING: [youtube] gYRDjLb41R8: nsig extraction failed: You may experience
throttling for some formats
         n = KObR-BA0Tg79hZmh ; player =
https://www.youtube.com/s/player/9c6dfc4a/player_ias.vflset/en_US/base.js
[info] gYRDjLb41R8: Downloading 1 format(s): 137+251
ERROR: unable to download video data: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden


Notice that on my Windows 10 (which I don't want to use for these tasks) after a
lengthy installation process outlined in the link in my starting post I could in
fact download the instruction video to Windows.

And I can copy it over to the video store on my Linux server.
But this is not useful because I have scripts using yt-dlp for getting videos in
general on my Ubuntu server so I need it to work there....

Does it matter that my Windows 10 is a desktop machine whereas my Ubuntu Server
is just that, a server with no GUI in use ever, just command line via ssh?


>or use the PPA listed so that you can install via APT:
>
>https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#apt
>
How can I "use the PPA"?


>or via Snap package:
>
>https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#snap.

Concerning snap I had a big problem when installing Ubuntu Server insamuch I
could not get mosquitto installed via apt so it would run...
It turnde out tha unbeknown by me the installer had put a snap version on my
machine and that was holding the MQTT port.
But apt happily installed mosquitto anyway.

So I am not comfortable with the snap system, how can one know what is there and
in "normal" places?


-- 
Bo Berglund
Developer in Sweden