Help me to enable video hardware acceleration in chromium on AMD/ATI card

[digitalone2]

Hello. I have a laptop with an ATI VGA, Radeon open source driver and Arch Linux. I installed this package:
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/chromium-vaapi/and
and hardware acceleration works fine in chromium.

Then I have another laptop with another ATI VGA, same Radeon open source driver and Lubuntu 16.04 LTS.
chromium-browser does not have hardware acceleration support, by default chromium has not enabled it on Linux. But there's this patch
https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/532294
that enables VAAPI hardware acceleration inside the browser on Linux.

The package above for Arch Linux works well and I tried to find something similar for Lubuntu. There's this PPA:
https://launchpad.net/~saiarcot895/+archive/ubuntu/chromium-dev
It provides chromium-dev with the same patch.

I installed it, but hardware acceleration does not work.

Could you help me to find the solution?
Maybe it's an issue in libva to get VAAPI working. I could provide tests and logs from terminal if you can collaborate.

Thanks.

[TheFu]

https://www.unixmen.com/quick-tip-enable-hardware-acceleration-chromium-chrome-browser/ - there are some settings inside the browser that need to be enabled. If you've done that already, IDK.

[digitalone2]

https://www.unixmen.com/quick-tip-enable-hardware-acceleration-chromium-chrome-browser/ - there are some settings inside the browser that need to be enabled. If you've done that already, IDK.

Yes, already done on Lubuntu, but hardware acceleration won't work.
Did the same on Arch Linux and it works there.

Should be an issue in libva packages that provides vaapi support, but I can't understand why they work on Arch Linux and not on Lubuntu.

[TheFu]

Don't know.
I stopped using AMD when they dropped support for my radeon CPU.
Works on my iGPU/Intel.

There are lots of possible reasons.

[Yellow Pasque]

What does vainfo show?

vainfo

[digitalone2]

Don't know.
I stopped using AMD when they dropped support for my radeon CPU.
Works on my iGPU/Intel.

There are lots of possible reasons.
Which reasons?
Hardware acceleration works on Radeon cards. If it works on Arch Linux, there should be a way to get it working on Lubuntu too.
Both systems are installed on the same GPU family. Lubuntu is on Kabini, Arch on Mullins.
According to this: https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/
They belong to Sea Island family and "Video Decode (VDPAU/OpenMax/VAAPI) on UVD" is supported.


What does vainfo show?

vainfo
This is the output on Lubuntu:

libva info: VA-API version 0.39.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so
libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1
libva info: vaInitialize failed with error code -1 (unknown libva error),exit

It seems libva is not implemented in the right way on Lubuntu.

This is the other output on ArchLinux:

libva info: VA-API version 1.0.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_0
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.0 (libva 2.0.0)
vainfo: Driver version: mesa gallium vaapi
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointEncSlice
VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc


VAAPI version on Lubuntu is 0.39.0 while 1.0.0 on Arch Linux.
Is there a way to get it working on 0.39.0?

I can't see now on Lubuntu, but libva on Arch Linux is provided for Radeon driver by "libva-mesa-driver" package, while mesa is the radeon driver package (see here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Hardware_video_acceleration).
Can you tell me which are the relative packages in Lubuntu?

[Yellow Pasque]

mesa-va-drivers

[digitalone2]

mesa-va-drivers
Great, I missed that package. Don't know why it's not installed by default.
After installation, vainfo output on Lubuntu is similar to the one on Arch Linux.
I'll try to install chromium-dev and see if hardware acceleration works.

[digitalone2]

Nothing to do, hardware acceleration is still not working.
It's because ubuntu LTS uses old ATI drivers and hardware video decode is disabled on chromium, even if the patch is enabled.
It works on Arch because it's a rolling release and has latest drivers.
That's very sad. :(

[TheFu]

New is the enemy of stable.

LTS users want stability over all else. We don't want API changes. We don't want unproven software. Business and many home users don't want surprises. The system they installed in 2016 should work the same in 2017, 2018, 2019, ... The only way to ensure this is to NOT push newer versions of libraries or programs. We do want fixes, but not new versions.

RHEL 6 is on a 2.6 kernel still.

Everyone has slightly different needs and the LTS releases fits a specific requirement.

[Yellow Pasque]

Nothing to do, hardware acceleration is still not working.
It's because ubuntu LTS uses old ATI drivers and hardware video decode is disabled on chromium, even if the patch is enabled.
It works on Arch because it's a rolling release and has latest drivers.
That's very sad. :(

There are ways to upgrade to later graphics drivers.
Official way: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack (and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/RollingLTSEnablementStack for more technical detail)
Or use an unofficial PPA, like: https://launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-dias/+archive/ubuntu/pkppa

[digitalone2]

New is the enemy of stable.

LTS users want stability over all else. We don't want API changes. We don't want unproven software. Business and many home users don't want surprises. The system they installed in 2016 should work the same in 2017, 2018, 2019, ... The only way to ensure this is to NOT push newer versions of libraries or programs. We do want fixes, but not new versions.

RHEL 6 is on a 2.6 kernel still.

Everyone has slightly different needs and the LTS releases fits a specific requirement.
I know, this is the reason I installed an LTS on the other laptop because it's not for me, but for my brother. I use Arch Linux.

But he watches some videos on YouTube and hardware acceleration gives the system a light load on CPU resources.


There are ways to upgrade to later graphics drivers.
Official way: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack (and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/RollingLTSEnablementStack for more technical detail)
Or use an unofficial PPA, like: https://launchpad.net/~paulo-miguel-dias/+archive/ubuntu/pkppa
Thanks, I will give it a try.

[digitalone2]

Installed this: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/ubuntu/updates
And this: https://launchpad.net/~saiarcot895/+archive/ubuntu/chromium-dev

Enabled "Override software rendering list", "Hardware-accelerated video" and "Hardware-accelerated mjpeg decode for captured frame" from chrome://flags

Installed h264ify extension. Rebooted chromium.
chrome://gpu/ shows "Video Decode: Hardware accelerated".

During Youtube playback, chrome://media-internals shows "GpuVideoDecoder".

Thanks.