Custom Firefox launcher not working?

[d4m1r]

Hey guys, I am having a very strange problem....

I have recently enabled hardware acceleration for Firefox but basically, to enable it I now need to launch Firefox with "VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl firefox" in the terminal for example. Instead of having to manually launch Firefox via terminal everytime, I just wanted to modify the Firefox shortcut on my Unity launcher. I was told I could do this by editing the "firefox.desktop" file in /usr/share/applications to something like "Exec=env VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl firefox %u" instead of just "firefox %u". Well, that didn't work (Firefox launches but no hardware acceleration)...Now I am trying to edit the firefox shortcut on my Unity bar by using the stock "Main Menu" application. BUT if I change the parameter for Firefox in my Unity bar to anything other than the default "firefox %u", it just doesn't launch....

It will blink a few times but will never launch I have tried setting it to "VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl firefox", ""VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl firefox %u", and even "Exec=env VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl firefox %u", but it will not launch....What is going on?? All those commands work just fine in the terminal...

[deadflowr]

I would recommend opening the fire.desktop ,and save it with save as and place the new save in the users home folder
Put it in this

/home/user/.local.share/applications/

This way you can edit it without the need to run as root.
It'll also take precedence in loading over the file in the /usr/share folder.

but aside from that, have you tried a plain entry

Exec=env VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl firefox %u

no quotes.

[d4m1r]

Huh?

1) There is no /home/user folder.

2) Yes ofcourse, I never actually put the quotation marks in....Just used it in my original post to seperate the commands I used against my normal text

[deadflowr]

/home/user = your name.

[mc4man]

hwacell thru env VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl works fine here when editing /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop (though I prefer to manually start in instances where it makes sense.

The icon in the unity launcher by default opens /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop so if you use some means to create another firefox.desktop then I'd first remove your current launcher & then -
add your alternate one via. drag & drop
or
if your new launcher has been made executable then d. left click on & after it opens pin it to launcher.

By what means are you determining if hwacell is enabled?

[d4m1r]

Nothing seems to work....

1) Tried setting /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop to Exec=env VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl firefox %u, and that didn't work...Complains about the Exec=env part so I removed it and still nothing.

2) Tried removing the unity shortcut to try to get it to pickup the changes I made to /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop but that doesn't work either...

3) I tried to start Firefox with my script.sh (containing just Exec=env VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl firefox), confirmed hardware acceleration working, pinned it to desktop. Restarted Firefox and it was software acceleration again (as if I had used the stock launcher).


FYI, to check if hardware acceleration is actually enabled or not, go to any Youtube video, right click on the video, stats for nerds, and it should say something other than "software acceleration".

[d4m1r]

Anyone have any ideas?

[d4m1r]

Well, looks like that was indeed a bug and it is thankfully fixed in the latest Flash update (11.2.202.336).

However, I still can't get Firefox to launch by default with hardware acceleration from the Unity Bar. NONE of the below methods work.....

1) Tried setting /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop to Exec=env VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl firefox %u, and that didn't work...Complains about the Exec=env part so I removed it and then it complains about the VDPAU part...

2) Tried removing the unity shortcut to try to get it to pickup the changes I made to /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop but that doesn't work either...

3) I tried to remove my Firefox unity shortcut, start Firefox with my script.sh (containing just Exec=env VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl firefox), confirmed hardware acceleration working, pinned it to desktop. Restarted Firefox and it was software acceleration again (as if I had used the stock launcher).

[aeyeaws]

lifted from another site, for intel vid

Install and set up libvdpau-va-gl in Ubuntu


Important: make sure libvdpau-va-gl1 is not enabled system-wide because it causes Nvidia Settings to crash on start - if it is, either disable it or simply remove the package.

1. Firstly, install the VAAPI drivers
sudo apt-get install i965-va-driver

2. Install libvdpau-va-gl by using the main WebUpd8 PPA
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libvdpau-va-gl1

3. Adobe Flash doesn't use hardware acceleration by default on Linux so we'll have to force it:
sudo mkdir -p /etc/adobe
echo "EnableLinuxHWVideoDecode=1" | sudo tee /etc/adobe/mms.cfg
echo "OverrideGPUValidation=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/adobe/mms.cfg

4. Like I was telling you above, it's not a good idea to enable libvdpau-va-gl system-wide yet. Instead, you can simply launch an application with VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl firefox

[monkeybrain20122]

Important: make sure libvdpau-va-gl1 is not enabled system-wide because it causes Nvidia Settings to crash on start - if it is, either disable it or simply remove the package.

Where did you get Nvidia settings without a Nvidia card? If you have an Nvidia card you don't need libvdpau-va-gl as it supports vdpau directly and libvdpau-va-gl won't work because it does vdpau through vaapi and only Intel does vaapi (Even AMD does VDPAU directly now instead of VAAPI, at least for the open driver)

I enbale libvdpau-va-gl system wide on Ubuntu 13.10, 14.04 and Fedora 20, I have not experienced a problem but I have an intel card.