How can FFmpeg work with N8N?

[creative567145]

Hi

According to this Forum post/comment:
https://forum.cloudron.io/post/17531

FFmpeg is installed on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS OS

...
We researched and in order to make it work with N8N, some additional changes are required.

It would be very helpful if anybody can share that info

[james]

Hello @creative567145

Could you please go into a little more details what you are trying to do?
A step-by-step process on what you are trying to do and where it fails would be a great help to reproduce the issue and give you a solid answer.

[creative567145]

Thank you @james for the fast response.

1. For starters, we checked if FFmpeg is installed on the OS and we get the result that it isn't.
   Screenshot attached

2. Then, according to this:
   

   
   We should perform modifications to the docker compose file of N8N,
   but since we are doing that with env.sh (export put in front), we don't know what to add there.

That is why we asked if somebody has already done this successfully so that he can send the summarized steps, if possible

[james]

Hello @creative567145

You have been misguided by this video.

1. ExecuteCommand and LocalFileTrigger have been disabled by default for N8N 2.0 and above, documented here: https://docs.n8n.io/2-0-breaking-changes/#disable-executecommand-and-localfiletrigger-nodes-by-default
   You can edit your /app/data/env.sh file and add export NODES_EXCLUDE="[]" save the file and restart your N8N app, to re-enable all disabled nodes.
   But be advised, ExecuteCommand and LocalFileTrigger nodes have been disabled by default because they pose security risks
2. since N8N on Cloudron is running inside docker and not on the system itself you will not find ffmpeg on the system but inside the docker container of N8N.

After you have followed step 1. above, following up referring to the video, you can skip to the last part and test it with ExecuteCommand and ffmpeg -version since ffpmeg is installed in docker.

I have confirmed this is working with the Cloudron N8N package version 4.1.1 (screenshot below number (1)) packaging N8N version 2.1.4 (screenshot below number (2)).

Running ffpemg -version in the Cloudron app after adding export NODES_EXCLUDE="[]" to /app/data/env.sh and restarting the app.