This guide assumes you are using Raspbian Linux, you have ssh enabled and are doing everything through the terminal. This install was done on a fresh Raspbian install.
Update
Make sure Raspbian is up to date:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Install dependencies
First do this:
sudo apt-get -y install build-essential cmake cmake-curses-gui pkg-config libpng12-0 libpng12-dev libpng++-dev libpng3 libpnglite-dev zlib1g-dbg zlib1g zlib1g-dev pngtools libtiff4-dev libtiff4 libtiffxx0c2 libtiff-tools libeigen3-dev
you can add in cmake-qt-gui if you want a GUI for cmake, and don’t like ccmake.
Then do
sudo apt-get -y install libjpeg8 libjpeg8-dev libjpeg8-dbg libjpeg-progs ffmpeg libavcodec-dev libavcodec53 libavformat53 libavformat-dev libgstreamer0.10-0-dbg libgstreamer0.10-0 libgstreamer0.10-dev libxine1-ffmpeg libxine-dev libxine1-bin libunicap2 libunicap2-dev swig libv4l-0 libv4l-dev python-numpy libpython2.6 python-dev python2.6-dev libgtk2.0-dev
You don’t need the lib1394 libraries as there is no FireWire on the Raspberry Pi, but something in this list will grab them anyway (sigh). We install in two stages as there is a possibility of broken package errors if the install order is wrong. It may be fine, but why risk having to fix it.
Install OpenCV
Download OpenCV from http://opencv.org/downloads.html
e.g. the latest download link at time of writing
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/files/opencv-unix/2.4.8/opencv-2.4.8.zip/download opencv-2.4.8.zip
Or get the latest snapshot from the git repo:
git clone https://github.com/Itseez/opencv.git
Unzip and prepare for build
unzip opencv-2.4.8.zip cd opencv-2.4.8 mkdir release cd release ccmake ../
Configuring
press ‘c’ to configure
once done toggle the options you want. This were mine:
ANT_EXECUTABLE ANT_EXECUTABLE-NOTFOUND BUILD_DOCS ON BUILD_EXAMPLES ON BUILD_JASPER ON BUILD_JPEG ON BUILD_OPENEXR ON BUILD_PACKAGE ON BUILD_PERF_TESTS ON BUILD_PNG ON BUILD_SHARED_LIBS ON BUILD_TBB OFF BUILD_TESTS ON BUILD_TIFF ON BUILD_WITH_DEBUG_INFO ON BUILD_ZLIB ON BUILD_opencv_apps ON BUILD_opencv_calib3d ON BUILD_opencv_contrib ON BUILD_opencv_core ON BUILD_opencv_features2d ON BUILD_opencv_flann ON BUILD_opencv_gpu ON BUILD_opencv_highgui ON BUILD_opencv_imgproc ON BUILD_opencv_legacy ON BUILD_opencv_ml ON BUILD_opencv_nonfree ON BUILD_opencv_objdetect ON BUILD_opencv_ocl ON BUILD_opencv_photo ON BUILD_opencv_python ON BUILD_opencv_stitching ON BUILD_opencv_superres ON BUILD_opencv_ts ON BUILD_opencv_video ON BUILD_opencv_videostab ON BUILD_opencv_world OFF CLAMDBLAS_INCLUDE_DIR CLAMDBLAS_INCLUDE_DIR-NOTFOUND CLAMDBLAS_ROOT_DIR CLAMDBLAS_ROOT_DIR-NOTFOUND CLAMDFFT_INCLUDE_DIR CLAMDFFT_INCLUDE_DIR-NOTFOUND CLAMDFFT_ROOT_DIR CLAMDFFT_ROOT_DIR-NOTFOUND CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE Release CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES Debug;Release CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX /usr/local CMAKE_VERBOSE OFF CUDA_BUILD_CUBIN OFF CUDA_BUILD_EMULATION OFF CUDA_HOST_COMPILER /usr/bin/gcc CUDA_SDK_ROOT_DIR CUDA_SDK_ROOT_DIR-NOTFOUND CUDA_SEPARABLE_COMPILATION OFF CUDA_TOOLKIT_ROOT_DIR CUDA_TOOLKIT_ROOT_DIR-NOTFOUND CUDA_VERBOSE_BUILD OFF EIGEN_INCLUDE_PATH /usr/include/eigen3 ENABLE_NEON OFF ENABLE_NOISY_WARNINGS OFF ENABLE_OMIT_FRAME_POINTER ON ENABLE_PRECOMPILED_HEADERS ON ENABLE_PROFILING OFF ENABLE_SOLUTION_FOLDERS OFF ENABLE_VFPV3 OFF EXECUTABLE_OUTPUT_PATH /home/pi/opencv-2.4.8/release/bin GIGEAPI_INCLUDE_PATH GIGEAPI_INCLUDE_PATH-NOTFOUND GIGEAPI_LIBRARIES GIGEAPI_LIBRARIES-NOTFOUND INSTALL_CREATE_DISTRIB OFF INSTALL_C_EXAMPLES OFF INSTALL_PYTHON_EXAMPLES OFF INSTALL_TO_MANGLED_PATHS OFF OPENCV_CONFIG_FILE_INCLUDE_DIR /home/pi/opencv/opencv-2.4.8/release OPENCV_EXTRA_MODULES_PATH OPENCV_WARNINGS_ARE_ERRORS OFF OPENEXR_INCLUDE_PATH OPENEXR_INCLUDE_PATH-NOTFOUND PVAPI_INCLUDE_PATH PVAPI_INCLUDE_PATH-NOTFOUND PYTHON_NUMPY_INCLUDE_DIR /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/numpy/core/include PYTHON_PACKAGES_PATH lib/python2.7/dist-packages SPHINX_BUILD SPHINX_BUILD-NOTFOUND WITH_1394 OFF WITH_CUBLAS OFF WITH_CUDA OFF WITH_CUFFT OFF WITH_EIGEN ON WITH_FFMPEG ON WITH_GIGEAPI OFF WITH_GSTREAMER ON WITH_GTK ON WITH_JASPER ON WITH_JPEG ON WITH_LIBV4L ON WITH_NVCUVID OFF WITH_OPENCL ON WITH_OPENCLAMDBLAS ON WITH_OPENCLAMDFFT ON WITH_OPENEXR ON WITH_OPENGL ON WITH_OPENMP OFF WITH_OPENNI OFF WITH_PNG ON WITH_PVAPI ON WITH_QT OFF WITH_TBB OFF WITH_TIFF ON WITH_UNICAP OFF WITH_V4L ON WITH_XIMEA OFF WITH_XINE OFF
press ‘c’ again to configure with your new settings
press ‘g’ to generate the Makefile
And finally, build. This will take a long time (about 10 hours!).
make sudo make install
Other install guides
Here are a few of other install guides that may be helpful