nvidia-vaapi-driver Add a note in README explaining how to use this with Chrome

Since Chrome is now widely reported to work, there is no need to pretend that it will not function, as long as we explain that the support is not official.

Dec 02 '24 15:12 xuanruiqi

doesn't seem to work for me

EDIT: after testing, latest chromium seem to be working, but latest electron doesn't...

Dec 30 '24 10:12 littleblack111

❯ google-chrome-stable  --enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxZeroCopyGL,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs,VaapiIgnoreDriverChecks
Error: unrecognized flag --no-expose-wasm
Try --help for options
Created TensorFlow Lite XNNPACK delegate for CPU.
[12125:12152:0204/202623.925581:ERROR:registration_request.cc(291)] Registration response error message: DEPRECATED_ENDPOINT
Warning: Couldn't find an EGLConfig rendering to a window for TextureFormat::RGBA8Unorm.
 - While trying to discover a BackendType::OpenGL adapter.
    at Initialize (../../third_party/dawn/src/dawn/native/opengl/ContextEGL.cpp:83)

[12413:10:0204/202635.375322:ERROR:ffmpeg_common.cc(970)] Unsupported pixel format: -1
[12171:12424:0204/202635.548757:ERROR:vaapi_video_decoder.cc(1223)] failed Initialize()ing the frame pool
[12125:12152:0204/202649.542363:ERROR:registration_request.cc(291)] Registration response error message: DEPRECATED_ENDPOINT

Video Acceleration Information ==============================

Decoding :
Decode h264 baseline :	48x16 to 4096x4096 pixels
Decode h264 main :	48x16 to 4096x4096 pixels
Decode h264 high :	48x16 to 4096x4096 pixels
Decode vp9 profile0 :	128x128 to 8192x8192 pixels
Decode vp9 profile2 :	128x128 to 8192x8192 pixels
Decode hevc main :	144x144 to 8192x8192 pixels
Decode hevc main 10 :	144x144 to 8192x8192 pixels
Decode hevc main still-picture:	144x144 to 8192x8192 pixels
Encoding :

Log Messages ============

[12171:12171:0204/202620.491978:WARNING:sandbox_linux.cc(430)] : InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.
[12171:12171:0204/202620.497426:WARNING:viz_main_impl.cc(85)] : VizNullHypothesis is disabled (not a warning)
[12171:12424:0204/202635.548757:ERROR:vaapi_video_decoder.cc(1223)] : failed Initialize()ing the frame pool

Actually it's not working when playing a video

Feb 04 '25 12:02 HoleHolo

Does AV1 work for you with this? VP9 and H264 work great but AV1 uses CPU decode.

Using a 4090 with 570.86.16

Trying display: wayland
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.22 (libva 2.22.0)
vainfo: Driver version: VA-API NVDEC driver [direct backend]
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Simple              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP8Version0_3          : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile0            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileAV1Profile0            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain10             : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain12             : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile2            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain444            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain444_10         : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain444_12         : VAEntrypointVLD

I tried chroium, ungoogled-chromium, and edge.

Feb 07 '25 09:02 Colin1224

Does AV1 work for you with this? VP9 and H264 work great but AV1 uses CPU decode.

Using a 4090 with 570.86.16

Trying display: wayland
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.22 (libva 2.22.0)
vainfo: Driver version: VA-API NVDEC driver [direct backend]
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Simple              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP8Version0_3          : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile0            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileAV1Profile0            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain10             : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain12             : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile2            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain444            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain444_10         : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain444_12         : VAEntrypointVLD

I tried chroium, ungoogled-chromium, and edge.

I don't have a card that supports AV1, unfortunately. But it's not really working for me with 570.86.16. Have you used nvidia-smi pmon to verify that this is working?

Feb 09 '25 14:02 xuanruiqi

I don't have a card that supports AV1, unfortunately. But it's not really working for me with 570.86.16. Have you used nvidia-smi pmon to verify that this is working?

Yeah nvtop and nvidia-smi pmon both show decode for VP9, H264, and HEVC, just not AV1.

❯ nvidia-smi
Wed Feb 12 11:24:29 2025       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 570.86.16              Driver Version: 570.86.16      CUDA Version: 12.8     |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090        Off |   00000000:0A:00.0  On |                  Off |
|  0%   46C    P2             59W /  450W |    4662MiB /  24564MiB |      2%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
                                                                                         
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                              |
|  GPU   GI   CI              PID   Type   Process name                        GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                               Usage      |
|=========================================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A            1122      G   /usr/lib/Xorg                            59MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1210      G   /usr/bin/kwalletd6                        6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1243      G   /usr/bin/kwin_wayland                   177MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1335      G   /usr/bin/Xwayland                         9MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1371      G   /usr/bin/ksmserver                        6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1373      G   /usr/bin/kded6                            6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1394    C+G   /usr/bin/plasmashell                    451MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1432      G   /usr/lib/kactivitymanagerd                6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1435      G   /usr/bin/gmenudbusmenuproxy               6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1436      G   /usr/bin/kaccess                          6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1437      G   ...it-kde-authentication-agent-1          6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1438      G   /usr/lib/org_kde_powerdevil               6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1440      G   /usr/bin/xembedsniproxy                   6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1585      G   /usr/bin/kdeconnectd                      6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1656      G   /usr/bin/xwaylandvideobridge              6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            1693      G   /usr/lib/xdg-desktop-portal-kde           6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            2859      G   /usr/lib/firefox/firefox                370MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            3077      G   ...asma-browser-integration-host          6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            5120      G   ...deo --variations-seed-version       1884MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            5506      G   /usr/lib/baloorunner                      6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            7033      G   ...xZeroCopyGL,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs          6MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            7082    C+G   ...per --variations-seed-version       1240MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            7858      G   /usr/bin/konsole                          6MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

~
❯ nvidia-smi pmon
# gpu         pid   type     sm    mem    enc    dec    jpg    ofa    command 
# Idx           #    C/G      %      %      %      %      %      %    name 
    0       1122     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    Xorg           
    0       1210     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    kwalletd6      
    0       1243     G      0      0      -      -      -      -    kwin_wayland   
    0       1335     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    Xwayland       
    0       1371     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    ksmserver      
    0       1373     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    kded6          
    0       1394   C+G      -      -      -      -      -      -    plasmashell    
    0       1432     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    kactivitymanage
    0       1435     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    gmenudbusmenupr
    0       1436     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    kaccess        
    0       1437     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    polkit-kde-auth
    0       1438     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    org_kde_powerde
    0       1440     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    xembedsniproxy 
    0       1585     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    kdeconnectd    
    0       1656     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    xwaylandvideobr
    0       1693     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    xdg-desktop-por
    0       2859     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    firefox        
    0       3077     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    plasma-browser-
    0       5120     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    legcord --gpu-p
    0       5506     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    baloorunner    
    0       7033     G      -      -      -      -      -      -    msedge --ozone-
    0       7082   C+G      0      0      -      7      -      -    msedge --type=g

You can see successful hardware decode on a VP9 video with 570.86.16.

Feb 12 '25 19:02 Colin1224

https://wiki.debian.org/Chromium similar to https://wiki.debian.org/Firefox

before saying all of this, i have compiled the latest and verified it working in Firefox

in chromium 135: i have enabled the config options --enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxZeroCopyGL,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs,VaapiIgnoreDriverChecks

optimus laptop: however by default it tries to load the iHD vaapi which is disabled via prime export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=nvidia with NVD_LOG=1 shows that it is now working

plus down at the bottom of chrome://gpu/ enabling the config option features now has (it is empty without the --enable)

Video Acceleration Information
==============================
Decoding                      : 
Decode h264 baseline          : 48x16 to 4096x4096 pixels
Decode h264 main              : 48x16 to 4096x4096 pixels
Decode h264 high              : 48x16 to 4096x4096 pixels
Decode vp9 profile0           : 128x128 to 8192x8192 pixels
Decode vp9 profile2           : 128x128 to 8192x8192 pixels
Decode hevc main              : 144x144 to 8192x8192 pixels
Decode hevc main 10           : 144x144 to 8192x8192 pixels
Decode hevc main still-picture: 144x144 to 8192x8192 pixels

HOWEVER, both in nvtop and in developer console > more tools > media it is evident that its not operating, atleast for AV1 obviously on an alternate site that i know uses H264 videos, it still does show FFmpegVideoDecoder and is using CPU only decode

any further ideas?

nvidia-smi

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 570.124.04             Driver Version: 570.124.04     CUDA Version: 12.8     |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070        Off |   00000000:01:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| N/A   47C    P8              7W /  115W |    1869MiB /   8192MiB |     21%      Default |

vainfo
Trying display: wayland
Trying display: x11
libva info: VA-API version 1.22.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/nvidia_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_0
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.22 (libva 2.22.0)
vainfo: Driver version: VA-API NVDEC driver [direct backend]
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Simple              :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline:	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain               :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile0            :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain10             :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain12             :	VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile2            :	VAEntrypointVLD

and the log with error playing videos avc1 (h264) and other

     25531.903480910 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c:2239       __vaDriverInit_1_0 Initialising NVIDIA VA-API Driver
     25531.903494394 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c:2247       __vaDriverInit_1_0 Got DRM FD: 1 41
     25531.903502747 [411047-413955] ../src/backend-common.c:  31            isNvidiaDrmFd Invalid driver for DRM device: i915
     25531.903509876 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c:2250       __vaDriverInit_1_0 Passed in DRM FD does not belong to the NVIDIA driver, ignoring
     25531.903515684 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c:2259       __vaDriverInit_1_0 Now have 0 (0 max) instances
     25531.903522713 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c:2286       __vaDriverInit_1_0 Selecting Direct backend
     25531.903557156 [411047-413955] ../src/direct/direct-export-buf.c: 107      direct_initExporter Searching for GPU: 0 0 128
     25531.903582161 [411047-413955] ../src/backend-common.c:  31            isNvidiaDrmFd Invalid driver for DRM device: i915
     25531.903597403 [411047-413955] ../src/direct/direct-export-buf.c: 107      direct_initExporter Searching for GPU: 0 0 129
     25531.903613761 [411047-413955] ../src/direct/direct-export-buf.c: 129      direct_initExporter Found NVIDIA GPU 0 at /dev/dri/renderD129
     25531.903618787 [411047-413955] ../src/direct/nv-driver.c: 292            init_nvdriver Initing nvdriver...
     25531.903648182 [411047-413955] ../src/direct/nv-driver.c: 310            init_nvdriver NVIDIA kernel driver version: 570.124.04, major version: 570, minor version: 124
     25531.903655890 [411047-413955] ../src/direct/nv-driver.c: 317            init_nvdriver Got dev info: 100 1 0 fe
     25531.978701689 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c: 682           nvCreateConfig got profile: 7 with 1 attributes
     25531.978721784 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c: 703           nvCreateConfig got config attrib: 0 0 1
     25531.980455261 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c:1043          nvCreateContext creating context with 0 render targets, 0 surfaces, at 1280x720
     25531.993030659 [411047-413962] ../src/vabackend.c: 412          resolveSurfaces [RT] Resolve thread for 0x1bec2824e800 started
[411047:413955:0411/081925.764370:ERROR:vaapi_video_decoder.cc(1214)] failed Initialize()ing the frame pool
     25531.994924710 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c:1161         nvDestroyContext Destroying context: 2
     25531.994943178 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c: 321           destroyContext Signaling resolve thread to exit
     25531.994953998 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c: 327           destroyContext Waiting for resolve thread to exit
     25531.995061489 [411047-413962] ../src/vabackend.c: 466          resolveSurfaces [RT] Resolve thread for 0x1bec2824e800 exiting
     25531.995108266 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c: 329           destroyContext pthread_timedjoin_np finished with 0
     25532.235722920 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c:2147              nvTerminate Terminating 0x1bec01c48800
     25532.235917086 [411047-413955] ../src/vabackend.c:2161              nvTerminate Now have 0 (0 max) instances

Apr 11 '25 14:04 arrowgent

For me setting --enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxZeroCopyGL,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs,VaapiIgnoreDriverChecks does work (significant less CPU usage and nvidia-smi pmon gives C+G), however, I get the following logs which maybe are related?:

[45:45:0413/100847.144056:ERROR:gl_display.cc(495)] EGL Driver message (Error) eglCreateContext: Requested version is not supported
Warning: eglCreateContext failed with EGL_BAD_ATTRIBUTE
 - While trying to discover a BackendType::OpenGL adapter.
    at CheckEGL (../../third_party/dawn/src/dawn/native/opengl/UtilsEGL.cpp:98)

And scrolling down on the chrome://gpu/ page

[46:46:0413/102337.286620:WARNING:sandbox_linux.cc(415)] : InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.
[46:46:0413/102345.022466:ERROR:gl_display.cc(495)] : EGL Driver message (Error) eglCreateContext: Requested version is not supported
[46:46:0413/102504.769070:ERROR:gl_display.cc(495)] : EGL Driver message (Error) eglCreateContext: Requested version is not supported
[46:46:0413/102643.865773:ERROR:gl_display.cc(495)] : EGL Driver message (Error) eglCreateContext: Requested version is not supported

Apr 13 '25 08:04 Robin-Sch

Hardware video decoding acceleration has been working properly in chromium/brave releases for a long while now.

--enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxZeroCopyGL,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs

note: nVidia driver 575.57.08 currently requires building from git master, but very thankful it's working flawlessly.

Similar EGL errors (only ever occurring when accessing brave://gpu) as noted in https://github.com/elFarto/nvidia-vaapi-driver/pull/341#issuecomment-2799853293.

Jun 08 15:50:50 brave-browser.desktop[524117]: [524117:524117:0608/155050.964677:ERROR:ui/gl/gl_display.cc:508] EGL Driver message (Error) eglCreateContext: Requested version is not supported
Jun 08 15:50:50 brave-browser.desktop[524117]: Warning: eglCreateContext failed with EGL_BAD_ATTRIBUTE
Jun 08 15:50:50 brave-browser.desktop[524117]:     at CheckEGL (../../third_party/dawn/src/dawn/native/opengl/UtilsEGL.cpp:98)
Jun 08 15:50:51 brave-browser.desktop[524117]: [524117:524117:0608/155051.003143:ERROR:ui/gl/angle_platform_impl.cc:49] SyncEGL.cpp:69 (operator()): eglCreateSync failed with 0x00003009
Jun 08 15:50:51 brave-browser.desktop[524117]: ERR: SyncEGL.cpp:69 (operator()): eglCreateSync failed with 0x00003009

kernel 6.14.10
gnome-shell 48.2 (Wayland)
mutter 48.3.1 (-Dxwayland=false -Dx11=false)
nVidia 575.57.08

Jun 08 '25 20:06 tekstryder

I confirm that google-chrome-stable --enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxZeroCopyGL,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs works perfectly on Gnome Wayland as of today, 08/06/2025.

google-chrome 137.0.7151.68-1
libva-nvidia-driver 0.0.14-1

AV1 videos still use CPU decoding, but as 99% of the videos on the platform aren't AV1, that's not really a problem for now. Still, would be good to get AV1 decoding too, but having in mind that Chrome is unsupported by this library, we're blessed to have the rest working. Thanks for this incredible job, @elFarto!

Jun 09 '25 04:06 Edu4rdSHL

Electron apps usually use old versions of Electron and can't be expected to work properly

Jun 12 '25 07:06 xuanruiqi

An additional note: if you perform a Google Meet call with --enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxZeroCopyGL,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs enabled, all you will see is a green image, at least it happened to me today until I removed the flags.

Jun 17 '25 19:06 Edu4rdSHL

@arrowgent Has this issue been resolved for you? I'm encountering the same problem - Chrome's HEVC hardware acceleration throws the same error on Linux.

Jul 25 '25 02:07 wjx33166

Currently, under Wayland with DRM and NVIDIA driver version 570, Chrome 138 in non-headless mode successfully supports HEVC hardware decoding. However, in headless mode testing, it fails with errors

Jul 28 '25 07:07 wjx33166

An additional note: if you perform a Google Meet call with --enable-features=AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxGL,AcceleratedVideoDecodeLinuxZeroCopyGL,VaapiOnNvidiaGPUs enabled, all you will see is a green image, at least it happened to me today until I removed the flags.

This can be reproduced by visiting this steam page and viewing the video:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/222880/Insurgency/

I filed #386 for this, but I assume it is an upstream issue in chromium.

Aug 03 '25 03:08 ryao

Chromium. Works on Arch Wayland, but not with command from pull, use this one --> https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=2257360#p2257360

Aug 20 '25 09:08 Sameguyy

Chromium works on Arch Wayland, but not with command from pull, use this one

--> bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=2257360#p2257360

It's literally the same command though. --ozone-platform=wayland is just there to enable the native Wayland backend. Maybe I should add that it would work only on Wayland though

Aug 20 '25 09:08 xuanruiqi

@xuanruiqi Personally, if I don't add this to command, then the VA-API doesn't work, some players crash, and this site for checking the video looks like this And if I press play, then it will kind of do nothing, let's say I press play, and it just stays in the same visual state as in the picture

also if i try to start a 2k broadcast on twitch, i get error #3000 but with --ozone-platform=wayland all good

Aug 20 '25 10:08 Sameguyy

Chromium 140 defaults to --ozone-platform-hint=auto so the Wayland flag is soon to be irrelevant.

Aug 20 '25 12:08 tekstryder

https://github.com/elFarto/nvidia-vaapi-driver/pull/394 this should fix the VP8 problem producing a green screen/issues on videos, and we should finally have a fully working experience.

Oct 07 '25 07:10 Edu4rdSHL

#394 this should fix the VP8 problem producing a green screen/issues on videos, and we should finally have a fully working experience.

I tested it and it works perfectly

Oct 08 '25 00:10 Edu4rdSHL