Kodi crashes when trying to play any video

[Tom Lake]

Greetings wise Ubuntu community,

I'm having a video playback issue with Kodi 2:17.6+dfsg1-2ubuntu1 on Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS.

Everything was running fine until yesterday when I decided to apply the latest Ubuntu updates.
When I try to play a video with Kodi it immediately crashes or plays with a totally black image.

I don't remember exactly what were the updates, but I recall being Ubuntu base upgrades and graphics related (VDPAU, radeon, Gstreamer, X.Org, imagemagick, etc..). It was a small size update and not large driver files.

Kodi's Crashlog:
https://paste.kodi.tv/qicihizoyu

I'm using Radeon graphics and Kodi give me these errors:

#3 0x00007f47676c60aa in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#4 0x00007f47676c5dd7 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeonsi_dri.so

Repeated several times

#3 0x00007f475ce2c5a6 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libLLVM-8.so.1
#4 0x00007f475ce2c425 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libLLVM-8.so.1

#5 0x00007f47a8f223c9 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpulse.so.0
#6 0x00007f47a0aa2318 in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/pulseaudio/libpulsecommon-11.1.so

#1 0x00007f47a936f83a in ?? () from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libavahi-common.so.3

ERROR: Failed to determine egl config for visual info

ERROR: GetDirectory - Error getting
ERROR: Previous line repeats 2 times.

Among other .log error variants.

Team-Kodi stated these errors are related to 'Not supported GPU drivers' and politely asked us to direct this issue to Ubuntu forums.

There's anothers user with the same problem, but he's using Nvidia graphics.
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=345379

If I install the Latest Kodi 18.3 version, it works without issues.

But not with 17.6 Krypton version that I use.

I've just reinstalled Ubuntu from scratch, the 18.04.2 LTS version available from the website and what I was using without issues.
On the first launch I didn't upgrade anything from the huge list of available packages and just performed an installation of Kodi and its required packages.
I still get the same window crash or black image on videos.

Maybe there's a package here that needs to be downgraded in order to return Kodi's playback, if you guys could help me and point a direction:

curl i965-va-driver kodi kodi-bin libaacs0 libass9 libbdplus0 libbluray2 libcec4 libcrossguid0 libcurl4 libgif7 libllvm8 libmad0 libmicrohttpd12 libmysqlclient20 libnfs11 libp8-platform2 libpcrecpp0v5 libshairplay0 libtinyxml2.6.2v5 libva-drm2 libva-x11-2 libva2 libvdpau1 mesa-utils mesa-va-drivers mesa-vdpau-drivers mysql-common python-bluez python-olefile python-pil python-simplejson va-driver-all vdpau-driver-all

I've downgraded mesa-vdpau-drivers without success.

I figured that Kodi plays a very simple .webm video, but not high-def codecs.

Meanwhile I've found one solution:

If I install the latest open-source drivers that are not available on bionic repositories through the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppaibaf/graphics-drivers
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt upgrade

The following packages will be upgraded:
libdrm-amdgpu1 libdrm-common libdrm-intel1 libdrm-nouveau2 libdrm-radeon1
libdrm2 libegl-mesa0 libegl1-mesa libgbm1 libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx
libglapi-mesa libglx-mesa0 libllvm8 libwayland-egl1-mesa libxatracker2
mesa-va-drivers mesa-vdpau-drivers mesa-vulkan-drivers

(In my case for radeon graphics, just accept them all)

Afterwards, reconfigure these packages just to be safe:

sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3 ubuntu-session

Reboot your computer.

And voilà, Kodi player is returned.

However I'd prefer to use the default drivers available in the repository, that were released specifically optimized for Ubuntu 18 environment and made with hard effort.
These oibaf drivers don't give a good video quality.

I think I found what caused the issue:

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/07/...ate-ubuntu-its

I've learn that recently, on this month, Ubuntu added the latest releases of the proprietary Nvidia driver through the regular Ubuntu updates channel. They are now available on the 'Additional Drivers' section.

I'm pretty sure that small adjustments made for this upgrade messed with my Kodi playback, sent through that Ubuntu base updates I described.
And it's not only for AMD, another user with nvidia graphics is having this same issue.

Just check yourselves, install Kodi 17.6 Krypton (not 18) through the official ppa or Ubuntu repository and it will crash on every video you play.

Anyone has a clue?

Thank you for your time.
---
ProblemType: Bug
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.7
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-07-15 (2 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20190210)
Package: kodi 2:17.6+dfsg1-1ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-25.26~18.04.1-generic 4.18.20
Tags: third-party-packages bionic
Uname: Linux 4.18.0-25-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True

[Tom Lake (tmlake)]

apport information

[Tom Lake (tmlake)]

apport information

[Tom Lake (tmlake)]

apport information

[Tom Lake (tmlake)]

If I disable VDPAU from Settings/Player and leave enabled just VAAPI, Kodi works.

So it must be a specific misconfiguration with VDPAU.

[Tom Lake (tmlake)]

Kodi can't load radeonsi_dri.so

There used to occur this same issue with Steam,
maybe we have here conflicting libraries?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Steadman Smith (steadmansmith)]

I have this issue too with 18.04, Kodi 17.6 with a system with a AMD APU, disabling VDPAU and leaving only VAAPI enabled gets video playing again too. Is there any information that I can provide, just tell me.

[Tom Lake (tmlake)]

Join #kodi IRC channel and see if we have a bit of luck there.

[Tom Lake (tmlake)]

Solution found:

This bug is caused after an update for the latest version of libdrm-amdgpu1=2.4.97-1ubuntu1~18.04.1

Download the previous version from
https://mirror.transip.net/ubuntu/ubuntu/pool/main/libd/libdrm/

Install libdrm-amdgpu1_2.4.95-1~18.04.1_amd64.deb

and Kodi will return.

I've open a bug report to the dev
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libdrm/+bug/1837170

Please assign and hope they fix it for the next PointRelease.

[Tom Lake (tmlake)]

Different problem situation:

I first applied the downgrade of libdrm-amdgpu1 2.4.97-1ubuntu1~18.04.1 to 2.4.95-1ubuntu1~18.04.1, on the first launch of a newly installed Ubuntu 18.04.2 without any of the 400 updates packages available.
This way I got package Kodi working.

Now, after I update everything to the latest version, with libdrm-amdgpu1 as well, I can no longer downgrade it. If you force it, the system will crash.

I've figured that the removal of mesa-vdpau-drivers (which also removes vdpau-driver-all) gets kodi running normally again, even with VDPAU activated on settings/player.

So for the moment, that's the new solution for kodi's bug:

sudo apt remove mesa-vdpau-drivers
sudo apt-mark hold mesa-vdpau-drivers

Please follow the dev workaround at
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libdrm/+bug/1837170

[Tom Lake (tmlake)]

A better workaround is to downgrade these packages

libgl1-mesa-dri_18.2.8-0ubuntu0~18.10.2_amd64.deb
mesa-vdpau-drivers_18.2.8-0ubuntu0~18.10.2_amd64.deb

Get them from
https://mirrors.d-l.fr/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/m/mesa/

These are versions packed with the PointRelease 18.04.2 and are just as good as the latest.

Because uninstalling mesa-vdpau-drivers considerably changes the picture quality of Kodi, disabling hw acceleration.

Let's wait for a fix in the next Ubuntu updates.