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 $GYP_DEFINES:

  • chromeos=1 to link in VaapiVideoDecodeAccelerator
  • proprietary_codecs=1 ffmpeg_branding=Chrome to allow Chrome to play h.264 content, which is the only codec VAVDA knows about today.

• Re-run gyp (./build/gyp_chromium or gclient runhooks)

• 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.