5 ms·

This post is 100% accurate, one thing that people won't beleive is that it's almost 2022 and there is no hardware acceleration when playing video on your browse

by Thaxll 5y ago

This post is 100% accurate, one thing that people won't beleive is that it's almost 2022 and there is no hardware acceleration when playing video on your browser in Linux, yup CPU is pegging like crazy to play some stuff that is trivial to decode with a GPU. I have a laptop from 2021 and yet somehow VLC is not able to use the GPU for video decoding. Something that windows has been doing for the last 15 years. So you have slow video rendering, high CPU / battery usage. Other crazy stuff: have you tried to install that version of x11 to get the latest opengl, then have you tried to put that firmware in the folder etc etc ... Does your kernel has the backport from version 5.10.x no? well when you get back from sleep have a black screen etc ... same problems as 20 years ago on Linux. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/chromium#Force_GPU_acceleration https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/chromium#Force_GPU_accelera...

kiwijamo 5y ago
I know it's proving the point in the article, but I thought I'd let you know Firefox can be configured to do hardware acceleration. There's a nice article in the Arch Linux wiki that describes the steps needed to turn it on: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Firefox#Hardware_video_acceleration https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Firefox#Hardware_video_acce... I've done this and the battery life on my ThinkPad (Intel graphics) while watching videos in Firefox has improved heaps. My last 20% is around an hour instead of only 15mins. It's silly how it's turned off by default even though it works just fine. But again proving the point of the article I guess...
- pizza234 5y ago
  > It's silly how it's turned off by default even though it works just fine This can't be really stated based on anecdata; for example, my case has been unsuccessful - I had issues, so I had to disable it.
- commoner 5y ago
  Firefox has enabled hardware acceleration in GNOME Shell by default as of versions 84 (X11) and 85 (Wayland), if you are using AMD or Intel graphics.[2] The feature is enabled in KDE Plasma and XFCE by default (X11 only) as of version 88, also for AMD and Intel graphics.[2] [1] https://mastransky.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/firefox-were-finally-getting-hw-acceleration-on-linux/ https://mastransky.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/firefox-were-fin... [2] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1696495 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1696495
  - kiwijamo 5y ago
    I believe you are referring to hardware acceleration for stuff other than video (which I guess is what WebRender is about). I have no problems with this, and indeed WebRender is enabled by default in my installation of Firefox 93, GNOME, Wayland, Intel graphics. Re-reading my post I realise I didn't specifically say hardware video acceleration -- this is where applications like Firefox does video decoding etc in the GPU instead of in software. This is not enabled by default on Linux yet.
peheje 5y ago
Why are some people not willing to spend money on these things? Isn't it a good thing to be willing to? HW acceleration, great sleep support, nice trackpad drivers, good battery life, well integrated high-resolution display support, high res audio (AAC) over Bluetooth or integration to your other devices etc. etc. Where's the freedom in not even being able to pay/opt-in for these things in your OS? How is this thought providing freedom for the developers of a complicated driver or another great piece of SW?
- shaan7 5y ago
  > Why are some people not willing to spend money on these things? Isn't it a good thing to be willing to? From what I understand from other comments on this post, it seems this particular problem can only be perfected by more testing across multiple devices etc - that requires a wider effort that is quite difficult to achieve. For example, I use Linux as my daily driver and I sometimes fix bugs here and there. But, personally for me, this particular one requires so much effort for not-that-revolutionary benefits. More context: I rarely watch long videos on my laptop when on the move. I'd rather fix something that improves my workflow than a bit more of battery life. Sleep, otoh, is very important to me, so I ensure to buy laptops that DO NOT have NVIDIA stuff in them. For Gaming I got my desktop. Result: my XPS 13 and ThinkPad sleep and resume instantly, WiFi, audio etc work fine, including attaching a dock. I guess its really a YMMV thing, which, as the blog points out, doesn't help Linux's popularity.
boardwaalk 5y ago
I’m not sure why you linked to docs talking about video decode acceleration in the browser after saying there is none. Anyways, it exists, I use it every day, but it’s not zero effort — like most things on Linux.
- Thaxll 5y ago
  Hardware decoding in the browser should be 0 effort in 2021, it does not make sense that it's not a thing. I use Chrome and Ubuntu 20.04 + an intel Iris ( CPU from 2020 ) and it's not possible to make it work. I'm a dev and I know Linux very well, so imagine average people.
  - peheje 5y ago
    So this is hacker news.. Anyone with the knowledge, how difficult is it actually to enable hardware decoding for the vast HW out there? Like how many hours of work / manpower do you to have HW decoding support for the hardware out there and to keep it up to date, safe, update it for new HW etc?
    - netr0ute 5y ago
      How can Windows do it? It's not like MS has lots of resources to do this very specific thing, and Windows needs to support almost all consumer hardware. That makes me think there's some driver-level barrier that Linux devs just haven't cared enough about.
      - mschuster91 5y ago
        Windows and OS X ship APIs for acceleration.
      - itvision 5y ago
        Windows has DXVA which has been standardized for over a decade. Linux still cannot settle on a single universal API which works regardless of a graphics system or various underlying drivers. In short it's a bloody mess.
joe_the_user 5y ago
This is a far more specifically problematic issue than a lot of the list imo.
agentdrtran 5y ago
I didn't know this, wow. How do you watch videos on a laptop like that?
- dragonelite 5y ago
  Let the CPU decode/render it i guess, and say bye bye to your battery life.

by Thaxll 5y ago

kiwijamo 5y ago

I know it's proving the point in the article, but I thought I'd let you know Firefox can be configured to do hardware acceleration. There's a nice article in the Arch Linux wiki that describes the steps needed to turn it on: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Firefox#Hardware_video_acceleration https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Firefox#Hardware_video_acce... I've done this and the battery life on my ThinkPad (Intel graphics) while watching videos in Firefox has improved heaps. My last 20% is around an hour instead of only 15mins. It's silly how it's turned off by default even though it works just fine. But again proving the point of the article I guess...

pizza234 5y ago
> It's silly how it's turned off by default even though it works just fine This can't be really stated based on anecdata; for example, my case has been unsuccessful - I had issues, so I had to disable it.
commoner 5y ago
Firefox has enabled hardware acceleration in GNOME Shell by default as of versions 84 (X11) and 85 (Wayland), if you are using AMD or Intel graphics.[2] The feature is enabled in KDE Plasma and XFCE by default (X11 only) as of version 88, also for AMD and Intel graphics.[2] [1] https://mastransky.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/firefox-were-finally-getting-hw-acceleration-on-linux/ https://mastransky.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/firefox-were-fin... [2] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1696495 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1696495
- kiwijamo 5y ago
  I believe you are referring to hardware acceleration for stuff other than video (which I guess is what WebRender is about). I have no problems with this, and indeed WebRender is enabled by default in my installation of Firefox 93, GNOME, Wayland, Intel graphics. Re-reading my post I realise I didn't specifically say hardware video acceleration -- this is where applications like Firefox does video decoding etc in the GPU instead of in software. This is not enabled by default on Linux yet.

peheje 5y ago

Why are some people not willing to spend money on these things? Isn't it a good thing to be willing to? HW acceleration, great sleep support, nice trackpad drivers, good battery life, well integrated high-resolution display support, high res audio (AAC) over Bluetooth or integration to your other devices etc. etc. Where's the freedom in not even being able to pay/opt-in for these things in your OS? How is this thought providing freedom for the developers of a complicated driver or another great piece of SW?

shaan7 5y ago
> Why are some people not willing to spend money on these things? Isn't it a good thing to be willing to? From what I understand from other comments on this post, it seems this particular problem can only be perfected by more testing across multiple devices etc - that requires a wider effort that is quite difficult to achieve. For example, I use Linux as my daily driver and I sometimes fix bugs here and there. But, personally for me, this particular one requires so much effort for not-that-revolutionary benefits. More context: I rarely watch long videos on my laptop when on the move. I'd rather fix something that improves my workflow than a bit more of battery life. Sleep, otoh, is very important to me, so I ensure to buy laptops that DO NOT have NVIDIA stuff in them. For Gaming I got my desktop. Result: my XPS 13 and ThinkPad sleep and resume instantly, WiFi, audio etc work fine, including attaching a dock. I guess its really a YMMV thing, which, as the blog points out, doesn't help Linux's popularity.

boardwaalk 5y ago

I’m not sure why you linked to docs talking about video decode acceleration in the browser after saying there is none. Anyways, it exists, I use it every day, but it’s not zero effort — like most things on Linux.

Thaxll 5y ago
Hardware decoding in the browser should be 0 effort in 2021, it does not make sense that it's not a thing. I use Chrome and Ubuntu 20.04 + an intel Iris ( CPU from 2020 ) and it's not possible to make it work. I'm a dev and I know Linux very well, so imagine average people.
- peheje 5y ago
  So this is hacker news.. Anyone with the knowledge, how difficult is it actually to enable hardware decoding for the vast HW out there? Like how many hours of work / manpower do you to have HW decoding support for the hardware out there and to keep it up to date, safe, update it for new HW etc?
  - netr0ute 5y ago
    How can Windows do it? It's not like MS has lots of resources to do this very specific thing, and Windows needs to support almost all consumer hardware. That makes me think there's some driver-level barrier that Linux devs just haven't cared enough about.
    - mschuster91 5y ago
      Windows and OS X ship APIs for acceleration.
    - itvision 5y ago
      Windows has DXVA which has been standardized for over a decade. Linux still cannot settle on a single universal API which works regardless of a graphics system or various underlying drivers. In short it's a bloody mess.

joe_the_user 5y ago

This is a far more specifically problematic issue than a lot of the list imo.

agentdrtran 5y ago

I didn't know this, wow. How do you watch videos on a laptop like that?

dragonelite 5y ago
Let the CPU decode/render it i guess, and say bye bye to your battery life.