Vainfo fails to run on Gigabyte Brix i5-4200

[Clint O]

I was trying to find out about my hardware capabilities and someone asked me to run vainfo. I had never heard of this program, so I installed it.

However, it returns with:

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libva info: VA-API version 0.40.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1
vaInitialize failed with error code -1 (unknown libva error),exit

Here's my system info:

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$ inxi -F
System:    Host: htpc Kernel: 4.15.0-54-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Console: tty 2 Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   Mobo: GIGABYTE model: MMLP5AP-00 v: 1.x Bios: American Megatrends v: F6 date: 12/08/2014
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-4200U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           clock speeds: max: 2600 MHz 1: 1213 MHz 2: 1251 MHz 3: 1228 MHz 4: 1166 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller
           Display Server: X.org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           tty size: 220x37 Advanced Data: N/A out of X
Audio:     Card-1 Intel 8 Series HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: ALSA v: k4.15.0-54-generic
           Card-2 Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8723AE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter driver: rtl8723ae
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: 24:0a:64:b6:23:ba
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 74:d4:35:42:c7:40
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 120.0GB (23.7% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: Crucial_CT120M50 size: 120.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 103G used: 19G (20%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 8.50GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 60.0C mobo: 27.8C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 238 Uptime: 19 days Memory: 3636.6/7896.7MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5
           Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.2.35

I did a quick forum search as well as on the Google and didn't find anything immediately wrong. Is there something I may have incorrectly configured?

[roblm]

Use this command to install the i965-va-driver for VA-API support for the Intel GPU: apt install i965-va-driver

Then run vainfo again. Read the info on this web page, under the section Verifying VA-API to interpret the output:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ha ... celeration

[Clint O]

This is awesome, thanks! One thing I do see is:

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vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Simple            : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileMPEG2Main              : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264MultiviewHigh      : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264StereoHigh         : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264StereoHigh         : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileVC1Simple              : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Main                : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVC1Advanced            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileNone                   : VAEntrypointVideoProc
      VAProfileJPEGBaseline           : VAEntrypointVLD

But when I run vdpauinfo it doesn't mention any MPEG2 support. Is there a straightforward explanation for why this is happening?

[roblm]

For VDPAU support: apt install libvdpau-va-gl1

The following info was provided by forum member gm10 in another older topic.

Use this command to open the 20vdpau-va-gl file for editing:
xed admin:///etc/X11/Xsession.d/20vdpau-va-gl

Remove the pound sign (#) in front of the last two lines, so they will now be read. Reboot.

[gm10]

For VDPAU support: apt install libvdpau-va-gl1

The following info was provided by forum member gm10 in another older topic.

Use this command to open the 20vdpau-va-gl file for editing:
xed admin:///etc/X11/Xsession.d/20vdpau-va-gl

Remove the pound sign (#) in front of the last two lines, so they will now be read. Reboot.

Must be an old post, in later posts I'd provide a script for that:

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sudo sed -i '5,6 s/^#//' /etc/X11/Xsession.d/20vdpau-va-gl

But I think OP may have already done that. The thing is that VDPAU on Intel is only partially implemented via the VAAPI OpenGL backend, so all you get is h264 hardware decoding. It's best to always use VAAPI on Intel.

[Clint O]

Actually, the only reason why I was running either of these commands was to debug performance problems with PLEX on my hardware, and I was interested in interrogating to find out what was supported. I'm not using either of these APis. I also don't know what the PLEX server uses, either.