Firefox VAAPI test task for AMD/Intel GPUs w/OSS drivers (T10554)

[celticmagic]

Rune Morling (@ermo), 2023-06-11 13:30:16 UTC

This task outlines the procedure for testing that ffmpeg-driven VAAPI acceleration in Firefox is considered "working". For this test to pass, when Firefox is playing videos, we verify the GPU on the system is used for rendering. _**Note**: The Budgie and MATE desktop environments do not yet support Wayland. Gnome currently has support disabled on Solus for now but will be enabled soon™_ ## Prerequisites: - Install `libva-utils` which will allow you to run `vainfo` ## Smoke Test Run `vainfo`. Make sure you see sane output like VA-API version, driver version, and a lot of lines with VAEntrypointVLD. If you get any errors, ❌ STOP ❌ . VAAPI is not working correctly on the system. ### Further setup #### GPU Check and Firefox config - Firefox requires a GPU with support for OpenGL 3.2 or newer or GLES 3.0 or newer to enable hardware acceleration. Verify your hardware supports this with `glxinfo | grep "OpenGL.*profile version"` for OpenGL and `eglinfo | grep version` for GLES - To support 4k video in Firefox, go to about:config - Ensure media.mediasource.webm.enabled is set to true - Also make sure you don't have any addons that prefer / force the H264 codec (ideally, run Firefox with a profile that has no extensions installed) #### If you have an AMD GPU Set the following environment variable ``` LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=radeonsi ``` #### If you have an Intel GPU - Install `intel-media-driver` to support VAAPI. - Install `intel-gpu-tools` to be able to run `intel_gpu_top` #### If you have an **nVidia GPU** there's a little extra setup: - The nvidia-vaapi-driver and nvidia-glx-driver packages must be installed - You need to add a kernel boot flag. Create the file `/etc/kernel/cmdline.d/10-nvidia.conf` and add `nvidia-drm.modeset=1`, then reboot. - Run `sudo clr-boot-manager mount-boot` - UEFI: Check `cat /boot/loader/entries/Solus-*.conf | grep nvidia-drm.modeset=1` - BIOS: Check `sudo cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg | grep nvidia-drm.modeset=1` - Verify that `dmesg | grep nvidia-modeset` returns output - Verify that the kernel is currently loaded with nvidia-modeset with `grep nvidia-drm.modeset /proc/cmdline` - The following environment variables need to be set in your bashrc / zshrc / fish variables: ``` MOZ_DISABLE_RDD_SANDBOX=1 EGL_PLATFORM=wayland __EGL_VENDOR_LIBRARY_FILENAMES=/usr/share/glvnd/egl_vendor.d/10_nvidia.json LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=nvidia ``` #### Firefox setup - In Firefox, navigate to `about:config` - Look for the property `media.ffmpeg.vaapi.enabled`. Create it if it doesn't exist. Set this to "true". Ensure the following values are set as follows: - `widget.dmabuf.force-enabled` true - `media.rdd-ffmpeg.enabled` true - `gfx.x11-egl.force-enabled` true - `gfx.webrender.software` false - Restart FF and navigate to `about:support` and check these under the GPU section: - Under Graphics, "Compositing" should be "WebRender" (not "WebRender (Software)") - Under GPU#1, "VAAPI" should exist and have - available by default - force_enabled by user: Force enabled by pref (not present for Intel) - blocklisted by env: Blocklisted by gfxinfo (not present for Intel) # Testing ## nVidia test: 1. Start Firefox. 1. In terminal run `nvidia-smi`. Note any firefox processes and the Memory-Usage. 1. Start up a YouTube video. 1. Re-run `nvidia-smi`. There should still be firefox process(es), and the Memory-Usage increases, this verifies that Firefox is using hardware rendering. ## Intel test: 1. Start up a YouTube video. 1. Run `sudo intel_gpu_top`. You should see the memory utilization go up. ## AMD test: 1. ## YouTube tests: Start firefox in terminal so you can see if there are any errors. In particular, look for anything with "VA-API". ``` MOZ_LOG="PlatformDecoderModule:5" MOZ_X11_EGL=1 firefox ``` You don't want to see "Failed to create VA-API device context" Test the following videos at 1080p60 and use right-click -> stats for nerds. If things are working, there should be a field Codecs with something like VP9X (verifying the VP9 codec is in use), and opus - [SIDEMEN OLYMPICS 2022](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OD-43bSpLQ) - [Costa Rica in 4k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXb3EKWsInQ) ## Twitch tests: IF and only if the above works, test the following Twitch video(s) and use right-click -> stats for nerds to check that HW accel is enabled - (...) - (...) ## Helpful for visuals re. what a test could look like [Firefox Hardware Video Decoding Using VAAPI & Wayland](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCXck6De4sY) ## Report format example: **GPU:** Radeon RX Vega 64 **Desktop:** KDE Plasma Desktop (X11 + Wayland sessions both tested) **System:** Up to date -unstable install **Result:** Acceleration confirmed working under both X11, XWayland (the default in a Wayland session with the command supplied above?) and Wayland native (`MOZ_LOG="PlatformDecoderModule:5" MOZ_X11_EGL=1 MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 firefox` in a terminal)

[celticmagic]

Rune Morling (@ermo), 2023-06-11 13:31:51 UTC

Assigning this to Joey for him to fill out the preferred result format and good video test cases

[celticmagic]

Joey Riches (@joebonrichie), 2023-06-16 21:56:41 UTC

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Firefox_Hardware_acceleration

[celticmagic]

Rune Morling (@ermo), 2023-06-16 23:05:15 UTC

You're it!

[celticmagic]

Rune Morling (@ermo), 2023-06-17 13:01:53 UTC

**GPU:** Radeon RX Vega 64 **Desktop:** KDE Plasma Desktop (X11 + Wayland sessions both tested) **System**: Up to date -unstable install **Result:** Acceleration confirmed working under both X11, XWayland (the default in a Wayland session with the command supplied above?) and Wayland native (`MOZ_LOG="PlatformDecoderModule:5" MOZ_X11_EGL=1 MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 firefox`) Thanks for the writeup! I'm a bit concerned re. the necessary manual fiddling re. environment variables for the VA-API backend, as this won't make it trivial to enable hardware decoding automagically?

[celticmagic]

Evan Maddock (@EbonJaeger), 2023-06-17 17:17:58 UTC

**GPU:** AMD Radeon RX 560 **Desktop:** Budgie Desktop (X11 only) **System:** Up to date -unstable install **Result:** As far as I can tell, acceleration is working fine. The log has no VA-API failures and the Stats for Nerds on Youtube shows av1/opus in use. I'm not sure if all the `about:config` steps are necessary for AMD, as I thought that Firefox enables hardware acceleration by default on AMD (and maybe Intel) systems on Linux, but it doesn't hurt to have it laid out to force it.

[celticmagic]

Hey (#Teroh), 2023-06-18 01:12:45 UTC

An easy way to check for Nvidia cards is : > nvidia-smi dmon And look if enc ( encoder ) or dec ( decoder ) do sth. while you play a visible video. You can also look at those stats in the nvidia settings manager. Sadly i can't test this feature directly, because i switched distro's cause .. well.

[celticmagic]

Andi (#andiskufi), 2023-06-18 10:39:20 UTC

Hi, I tested it and I don't have that "Under GPU#1, "VAAPI" should exist and have". On the first video the codec shows as av01 and on the second vp9. Does this means that is working correctly? AMD rx580 on unstable fully updated Plasma.

[celticmagic]

TraceyC (@TraceyC77), 2023-06-20 19:24:38 UTC

# Test Result: Failed **GPU:** nVidia / Intel GPU on laptop **Desktop:** KDE Plasma Desktop (X11 + Wayland sessions both tested) **System:** Up to date -unstable install ## X11 * vainfo has good information * When playing one of the videos, ran * Stats for nerds shows vp09 Started Firefox from command line. Output has errors, attached. In about:support there is no VAAPI entry under the GPU. Under "Important Modified Preferences". There are numerous errors, screenshot attached. ## Troubleshooting Found this https://github.com/elFarto/nvidia-vaapi-driver/issues/131 which suggested installing intel-media-driver. Did that, rebooted, no change. Source: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/enabling-accelerated-video-decoding-in-firefox-on-ubuntu-21-04/22081 media.ffvpx.enabled to false. Disables the internal software decoders for VP8/VP9, which currently overrule hardware accelerated video. - had been set to true, changed to false media.rdd-vpx.enabled to false. Needed due to Firefox trying to put some video decoding in a remote video process 165. This currently breaks accelerated VP8/VP9 video decoding. - had been set to true, changed to false media.navigator.mediadatadecoder_vpx_enabled to true. Enables hardware decoding for WebRTC, which is used on web based video conferencing apps. Already set to true. Source: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/enabling-accelerated-video-decoding-in-firefox-on-ubuntu-21-04/22081/24 media.rdd-process.enabled - had been true, set to false. Restarted Firefox, still see errors in about:support, and in command line {F10877424} {F10877427}

[celticmagic]

ZenurikSD (@ZenurikSD), 2023-06-25 18:10:26 UTC

**GPU**: Mesa Intel® HD Graphics 620 **Desktop**: KDE Plasma Desktop (X11 + Wayland sessions both tested) **System:** Up to date install (not unstable) **Result:** Acceleration confirmed working under both X11, XWayland (the default in a Wayland session with the command supplied above?) and Wayland native

[TraceyC77]

Stale, closing.