Unable to start the recording helper process

Hello,

I'm using OBS on Debian Testing. Everything worked fine until a recent update. I keep getting this error message when I hit start recording: "Unable to start the recording helper process. Check that OBS files have not been blocked or removed by any 3rd party antivirus / security software." Log reads:

13:54:02.716: [FFmpeg VAAPI encoder: 'advanced_video_recording'] settings:
13:54:02.716: device: /dev/dri/by-path/pci-0000:0e:00.0-render
13:54:02.716: rate_control: CBR
13:54:02.716: profile: 100
13:54:02.716: level: -99
13:54:02.716: qp: 0
13:54:02.716: bitrate: 2500
13:54:02.716: maxrate: 2500
13:54:02.716: keyint: 120
13:54:02.716: width: 3072
13:54:02.716: height: 1728
13:54:02.716: b-frames: 0
13:54:02.716: ffmpeg opts:
13:54:02.716:
13:54:02.723: ---------------------------------
13:54:02.723: [FFmpeg aac encoder: 'Track1'] bitrate: 160, channels: 2, channel_layout: stereo
13:54:02.723:
13:54:02.723: ---------------------------------
13:54:02.723: [FFmpeg aac encoder: 'Track2'] bitrate: 160, channels: 2, channel_layout: stereo
13:54:02.723:
13:54:02.724: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Failed to create process pipe

If I try to hit it again this happens:

13:55:51.929: encoder 'advanced_video_recording': Cannot apply a new video_t object after the encoder has been initialized
13:55:51.929: encoder 'advanced_video_recording': Cannot set the scaled resolution after the encoder has been initialized
13:55:51.929: encoder 'advanced_video_recording': Cannot enable GPU scaling after the encoder has been initialized
13:55:51.930: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Failed to create process pipe

Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 12
KDE Plasma Version: 5.27.11
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.0
Qt Version: 5.15.13
Kernel Version: 6.10.6-amd64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 24 × AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12-Core Processor
Memory: 62.0 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Manufacturer: ASUS

ffmpeg version 7.0.2-3

What is recording helper process and is there a way to start it manually?
Do I need to chmod some files?
Is this an FFmpeg issue?
Do I need to roll back the kernel?

The flatpak version still works. Only the debian repo version does not it seems like.

The issue still exists on Ubuntu 24.04. It looks like an Ubuntu package issue.

To solve this :

• You can install the official obsproject package form it's PPA (from OBS's download instructions : https://obsproject.com/download )

~~~
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ffmpeg obs-studio
obs
~~~
NOTE: obsproject's package solves another issue with obs crashing when attempting to open the property popup of a V4L2 source

• Or if you want to stick with the Ubuntu package, you can manually solve the issue. OBS seems to look for `obs-ffmpeg-mux` in the same directory of it's own binary which is `/usr/bin/obs`. For whatever reason it's installed in `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/obs-plugins/obs-ffmpeg` by the Ubuntu package.

~~~
cd /usr/bin
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/obs-plugins/obs-ffmpeg/obs-ffmpeg-mux .
obs
~~~