Enabling hardware decode codepaths on linux

Hardware acceleration of video decode on Linux is unsupported in Chrome for user-facing builds. During development (targeting other platforms) it can be useful to be able to trigger the code-paths used on HW-accelerated platforms (such as CrOS and win7) in a linux-based development environment. Here's one way to do so, with details based on a gprecise setup.

  • Install pre-requisites: On Ubuntu Precise, at least, this includes:

    sudo apt-get install libtool libvdpau1 libvdpau-dev

  • Install and configure libva

    DEST=${HOME}/apps/libva
cd /tmp
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/libva
cd libva
git reset --hard libva-1.2.1
./autogen.sh && ./configure --prefix=${DEST}
make -j32 && make install

  • Install and configure the VDPAU VAAPI driver

    DEST=${HOME}/apps/libva
cd /tmp
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/vaapi/vdpau-driver
cd vdpau-driver
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=${DEST}/lib/pkgconfig/:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH
export LIBVA_DRIVERS_PATH=${DEST}/lib/dri
export LIBVA_X11_DEPS_CFLAGS=-I${DEST}/include
export LIBVA_X11_DEPS_LIBS=-L${DEST}/lib
export LIBVA_DEPS_CFLAGS=-I${DEST}/include
export LIBVA_DEPS_LIBS=-L${DEST}/lib
make distclean
unset CC CXX
./autogen.sh && ./configure --prefix=${DEST} --enable-debug
find . -name Makefile |xargs sed -i 'sI/usr/lib/xorg/modules/driversI${DEST}/lib/driIg'
sed -i -e 's/_(\(VAEncH264VUIBufferType\|VAEncH264SEIBufferType\));//' src/vdpau_dump.c
make -j32 && rm -f ${DEST}/lib/dri/{nvidia_drv_video.so,s3g_drv_video.so} && make install

  • Add to args.gn:

    • target_os = "chromeos" to link in VaapiVideoDecodeAccelerator
    • proprietary_codecs = true and ffmpeg_branding = "Chrome" to allow Chrome to play h.264 content, which is the only codec VAVDA knows about today.

  • Rebuild chrome

  • Run chrome with LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${HOME}/apps/libva/lib in the environment, and with the --no-sandbox command line flag.

  • If things don‘t work, a Debug build (to include D*LOG’s) with --vmodule=*content/common/gpu/media/*=10,gpu_video*=1 might be enlightening.

** note NOTE THIS IS AN UNSUPPORTED CONFIGURATION AND LIKELY TO BE BROKEN AT ANY POINT IN TIME **

This page is purely here to help developers targeting supported HW <video> decode platforms be more effective. Do not expect help if this setup fails to work.