All video acceleration flags *disabled* in Chromium 58.0.3029.81-0ubuntu0.14.04.1172, tearing ensues

[indigocat]

Hello,

ElementaryOS running vanilla Ubuntu 14.04 kernel 3.13.0-117-generic and xserver-xorg-lts-trusty.

I upgraded chromium-browser to version 58.0.3029.81-0ubuntu0.14.04.1172 last night, and all video acceleration flags are absent from the version, even after enabling hardware acceleration and ignoring GPU blacklist:

chrome://gpu

Graphics Feature Status
Canvas: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Flash: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Flash Stage3D: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Flash Stage3D Baseline profile: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Compositing: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Multiple Raster Threads: Force enabled
Native GpuMemoryBuffers: Software only. Hardware acceleration disabled
Rasterization: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Video Decode: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Video Encode: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
VPx Video Decode: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
WebGL: Unavailable
WebGL2: Unavailable

Version 53 worked without tearing, even without enabling hardware acceleration or ignoring GPU blacklist.

Please let me know what other information you need from me to help.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: elementary OS 0.3.2
Package: chromium-browser 58.0.3029.81-0ubuntu0.14.04.1172 [origin: Ubuntu]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-117.164-generic 3.13.11-ckt39
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-117-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.23
Architecture: i386
CrashDB: ubuntu
CurrentDesktop: Pantheon
Date: Sat Apr 29 14:05:03 2017
Desktop-Session:
 'pantheon'
 '/etc/xdg/xdg-pantheon:/etc/xdg'
 '/usr/share/pantheon:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/'
Env:
 'None'
 'None'
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-02-19 (68 days ago)
InstallationMedia: elementary OS 0.3.2 "Freya" - Stable i386 (20151209)
Load-Avg-1min: 1.78
Load-Processes-Running-Percent: 0.2%
MachineType: PACKARD BELL BV EasyNote_MX36
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.13.0-117-generic root=UUID=38f5c291-fa81-4fa3-995a-c99b73d5d639 ro quiet splash radeon.dpm=1 vt.handoff=7
SourcePackage: chromium-browser
ThirdParty: True
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 03/23/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 303
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: EasyNote_MX36
dmi.board.vendor: PACKARD BELL BV
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: PACKARD BELL BV
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr303:bd03/23/2007:svnPACKARDBELLBV:pnEasyNote_MX36:pvrPB90E031B3:rvnPACKARDBELLBV:rnEasyNote_MX36:rvr1.0:cvnPACKARDBELLBV:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: EasyNote_MX36
dmi.product.version: PB90E031B3
dmi.sys.vendor: PACKARD BELL BV
gconf-keys: /desktop/gnome/applications/browser/exec = b'/usr/bin/chromium-browser\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/https/command = b'/usr/bin/chromium-browser %s\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/https/enabled = b'true\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/command = b'/usr/bin/chromium-browser %s\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/enabled = b'true\n'/desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager = b''/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager = b'true\n'/desktop/gnome/interface/icon_theme = b'gnome\n'/desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme = b'Elementary\n'
modified.conffile..etc.default.chromium.browser: [deleted]

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

I'm seeing the same on a laptop running trusty with an intel GM965 GPU. Version 53 has hardware-accelerated support for most graphic features, version 58 doesn't.

The "problems detected" section of chrome://gpu says:

  Mesa drivers older than 10.4.3 is crash prone on Linux Intel i965gm: 462426

And it links to https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=462426.

Trusty has mesa 10.1.3. So this is expected.

@indigocat: would you mind attaching the entire output of chrome://gpu (can be saved as an html page)?

[indigocat (indigocat)]

I reinstalled the OS yesterday, with the default stack (kernel 3.19 and the Vivid xorg), but the output is still the same.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

@indigocat: the output of chrome://gpu says: "GPU process was unable to boot: GPU access is disabled in chrome://settings."

Try opening chrome://settings and under advanced settings, in the "system" section, turn hardware acceleration back on?

[indigocat (indigocat)]

My bad, you're right; the perils of bug reporting before coffee.

I'll post the file tonight, after setting the configuration to the mentioned state.

Thanks for taking the time to review this report!

[indigocat (indigocat)]

Here it is:
chrome://gpu with "hardware acceleration when available" turned on.

Despite the seemingly available flags, Google Street View show a black screen, and YouTube video acceleration doesn't work as it used to.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Well hw-accelerated video decoding is not available on linux, that’s expected:

« Accelerated video decode is unavailable on Linux: 137247
Disabled Features: accelerated_video_decode »

I’m going to close this bug, as the original symptom was "fixed". Please file a separate bug report for the issue with google street view, if you don’t mind.

[indigocat (indigocat)]

Thing is, the apparent symptom is fixed, but video acceleration is still missing in comparison to chromium-browser 53; the black screen in chromium is a known bug that appears when hardware acceleration via "ignore gpu blacklist" is enabled (visible as well in version 53). What's happening in version 58 is under default settings, not forced flags.

[indigocat (indigocat)]

Since I had to revert to the Trusty stack (both kernel and xorg) because of stability issues, here's my current chrome://gpu output with default hardware acceleration enabled (without ignoring gpu blacklist). This shows the original problem, in a nutshell.

Upgrading to the xenial stack is a no-go, since my integrated Radeon Xpress200M isn't supported (performance worsened to the point of becoming unusable). Going for the Vivid stack gave me graphical glitches.