Believe it or not, I solved! For real this time! | HW Video Acceleration

[Panino]

Seems that with time things changed internally, so I think I had to use another combination of flags.

The experiment flags are like this: https://i.imgur.com/sewMGym.jpg

And I added these to the file path: --enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder, --use-gl=egl --disable-features=UseChromeOSDirectVideoDecoder

Finally, I succeeded changing to Vivaldi Stable.
(Sync don't sync the customized menus?)

[Panino]

Hardware video decode only worked on Stable for a fleeting moment, than I gave up.

Just a reminder that I'm stuck at version 5.8.2955.3 because of this.
Today I update Stable to the current version and nothing changed. I checked flags and file paths again, but nothing makes hardware video decode works.

[npro]

@Panino said in SOLVED! (for the last time) This time on Stable - NEON | HW Video Acceleration:

I added these to the file path: --enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder --disable-features=UseChromeOSDirectVideoDecoder

works here (6.1.3035.50, AMD, X11) with those flags and the appropriate drivers and packages, but I am on Arch, so you could look again into the documentation of the wiki and try to find the Ubuntu "equivalents", or look for some official Ubuntu/Neon documentation.

Also, use this for the videos that use the av1 codec: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/not-yet-av1/dcmllfkiihingappljlkffafnlhdpbai

[Panino]

On the GPU page, on the snapshot where acceleration is working, at the very end it looks like this:

On Stable, no matter what I do, those fields remain blank.

I think Stable is using the wrong drivers? Because on some fields were appears "Mesa Intel(R) HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2)" and other lines that include the Mesa driver, on the Stable is appears as "Google Inc. (Intel)".

Snapshot:

Stable:

Got me thinking, what if I can force the Stable to use the same driver the Snapshot is using?
But... I have no idea how to do that? And how each version is using different drivers? It's because the Stable is new and works differently, it has it's own driver? Even so, can I force it to use the Mesa driver?

[Pathduck]

@Panino said in SOLVED! (for the last time) This time on Stable - NEON | HW Video Acceleration:

And how each version is using different drivers? It's because the Stable is new and works differently, it has it's own driver?

No - "Google Inc. (Intel)". means it's using Software rendering, not hardware.
Explains the "Video Acceleration" being blank as well I guess.

Other than that, I can't help much with Linux and GPU driver problems.

[npro]

@Panino said in SOLVED! (for the last time) This time on Stable - NEON | HW Video Acceleration:

on the snapshot where acceleration is working

You really sure about that? The only way to be absolutely sure is the picture I showed you, Hardware Decoder should be showing true, not what you see under vivaldi://gpu. For example you see Video Decode: Hardware accelerated there but the textboxes in VA-Info are not showing any info.

I checked vivaldi://gpu for my Snapshot, it is what you are showing for Stable.
Use X11 and skip the parameter --use-gl=egl as I wrote above.

@Pathduck said in SOLVED! (for the last time) This time on Stable - NEON | HW Video Acceleration:

"Google Inc. (Intel)". means it's using Software rendering, not hardware.
Explains the "Video Acceleration" being blank as well I guess.

For strictly software rendering that would be Swiftshader, which is not in OP's case. ANGLE should be ok. OP needs additionally the parameter --enable-features=VaapiVideoDecoder for the textboxes to show the VA values.

The problem lies into that Chromium changes all the time, some things that used to work before don't quite work now.

[Pathduck]

@npro Well, I don't really know - but I do know that if I disabled HW accel. here (Windows with Nvidia card), GPU0 will show as:

VENDOR= 0xffff [Google Inc. (Google)], DEVICE=0xffff [ANGLE (Google, Vulkan 1.3.0 (SwiftShader Device (Subzero) (0x0000C0DE)), SwiftShader driver-5.0.0)], LUID={0,0}, DRIVER_VENDOR=SwANGLE, DRIVER_VERSION=5.0.0 *ACTIVE*

GL_VENDOR will be Google Inc. (Google) and Video Acceleration Information will show empty values.

So that was my observation, that it has nothing to do with Stable vs. Snapshot and all about HW accel. being disabled. For whatever reason that might be...

[npro]

@Pathduck Yes but you have that SwiftShader Device (Subzero) (<- ) there (OP didn't have that), that confirms you 've disabled hardware acceleration . Anyway it's pretty messy, always have been.

P.S. For some reason I couldn't post this with V. (error), had to use Firefox...

[npro]

This post is deleted!

[Panino]

@npro I can guarantee you, acceleration is working on the Snapshot.

I configured the Stable the same, some times tried to add or remove a few things, didn't worked. Then I noticed this detail about the drivers.
Why? As I said before, I think? In the past acceleration worked on the Stable, but then a minor update fix would make it stop working again, that's why all this time I always kept using the Snapshot. I had planned to make the switch to Stable this year but my plans failed because of this.

I don't understand, why on the same system the Snapshot used the correct driver but the Stable don't. Tricks to force Vivaldi/the browser to use an specific driver is something I hadn't tried yet.
Now, even adding these flags --gpu-testing-vendor-id=0x8086 --gpu-testing-device-id=0x1916 nothing changes there.

EDIT: I just tried every combination of flags, not matters what I do, Stable insist on using "Angle" and "Google, Inc".

[Panino]

Video Acceleration broke on the Snapshot too after Mesa and Vaapi packages, all hope is lost.
Now I'll have to use Firefox only for watching videos.

[npro]

@Panino Chromium devs messed it up by moving on to a new decoder (which is -from the little I read- working for Intel GPUs only), Vivaldi based on Chromium 114 is the last working version for other GPUs.

[Panino]

Not the only one with this problem: https://www.reddit.com/r/vivaldibrowser/comments/15jquqs/comment/jzfxhlu/?context=3

[npro]

This post is deleted!

[edwardp]

@Panino r/vivaldibrowser is not an official support channel.

Has this been reported as a bug? If not, please submit a bug report, provide all relevant information (including the Linux distro and version, mesa and vaapi package version numbers) and provide the bug report number (VB-xxxxx) in this thread. You can also include this message topic (post its URL) in the bug report.

Thank you.

[npro]

@npro Works with Chromium 115.0.5790.170 (AMD)

[Panino]

Just as short update.
All those categories in "vivaldi:gpu" were displaying as "software only". Nothing I did made any difference, nothing, absolutely nothing. I gave up and was using it that way, with Firefox Open to watch videos.

Today I wanted to use BleachBit and used it to clean system and Vivaldi's cache and guess what... those categories changed to "hardware accelerated".

Video acceleration still not working, that problem with GL_Vendor being Google Inc persists, but at least not the general performance should be better, I hope.

[Panino]

This week I switched from KDE Neon to Tuxedo OS, maybe change played it's part, but still... FINALLY DID IT!

Noticed that "Vulkan" was "Disabled" on the GPU page and thought, "shouldn't this be enabled?"
Changed it's flag from "Default" to "Enabled" and it worked!

Finally! After all these years!
Sorry Firefox, I don't you need anymore.