[LAU] Re: mpv video frontend woes with i915 on Debian

On 13/10/25 23:49, Peter P. wrote:
> Hi list,
>
> excuse this question as being partially off-topic, as not sound is
> involved, but since some time (possibly since the last big Debian
> upgrade), mpv complains about the video backend only being available as
> "software renderer" and not being able to use "vo=gpu".
>
> I run this on a Lenovo X230 with an Intel card and the i915 kernel
> driver. I have learned that for older intel hardware (than my card?)
> users are recommended to use xserver-xorg-video-modesetting X11 driver
> instead of the the xserver-xorg-video-intel one. And indeed, I can
> switch back and forth between these two by (not) forcing the latter in
> Xorg.conf as
> 	Driver      "intel"
>
> With the modesetting driver, mpv plays flawlessly using the vo=gpu
> output but Gem on PureData as well as glxgears stutter every few
> seconds. Having researched the web further, I found discussions about
> different performances of the two drivers.
>
> However, I would simply like to have mpv play nicely with the intel
> driver. Here is its output, that I can#t really make sense of despite
> having searched the web for a long time. Perhaps anyone on this list is
> able to help me further?
>
> Thanks a lot! Peter
>
> ------------>
>
> $ mpv --no-config test.mp4 2> /tmp/output.txt
> ● Video  --vid=1  (h264 960x544 30.0001 fps) [default]
> ● Audio  --aid=1  (aac 2ch 48000 Hz 192 kbps) [default]
> [vo/gpu/opengl] Suspected software renderer or indirect context.
> [vo/gpu/drm] VT_GETMODE failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
> [vo/gpu/drm] Failed to set up VT switcher. Terminal switching will be unavailable.
> [vo/gpu/drm] Failed to acquire DRM master: Permission denied
> [vo/gpu/drm] Failed to commit ModeSetting atomic request: Permission denied
> [vo/gpu/opengl] Failed to set CRTC for connector 80: Permission denied
> [vo/gpu/drm] Failed to commit ModeSetting atomic request: Permission denied
> [vo/gpu/drm] Failed to restore previous mode
> [vo/gpu/drm] Failed to drop DRM master: Permission denied
> [vo/gpu-next/opengl] Suspected software renderer or indirect context.
> [vo/gpu-next/drm] Can't handle VT release - signal already used
> [vo/gpu-next/drm] Failed to set up VT switcher. Terminal switching will be unavailable.
> [vo/gpu-next/drm] Failed to acquire DRM master: Permission denied
> [vo/gpu-next/drm] Failed to commit ModeSetting atomic request: Permission denied
> [vo/gpu-next/opengl] Failed to set CRTC for connector 80: Permission denied
> [vo/gpu-next/drm] Failed to commit ModeSetting atomic request: Permission denied
> [vo/gpu-next/drm] Failed to restore previous mode
> [vo/gpu-next/drm] Failed to drop DRM master: Permission denied
> [vo/vdpau] VDPAU is most likely emulated via VA-API.
> [vo/vdpau] This is inefficient. Use --vo=gpu instead.
> [vo/vdpau] Warning: this compatibility VO is low quality and may have issues with OSD, scaling, screenshots and more.
> [vo/vdpau] vo=gpu is the preferred choice in any case and includes VDPAU support via hwdec=vdpau or vdpau-copy.
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MPV in Debian is not configured to use hardware acceleration by default. 
I have this in my ~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf file and hardware decoding 
seems to work fine:
/vo=gpu
profile=gpu-hq
hwdec=vaapi
# Required for hwdec=vaapi to work when using vo=gpu
gpu-context=x11egl /

/# Resample audio to catch up if audio/video go out of sync
video-sync=display-resample#Activate interpolation
interpolation=yes
#Interpolation method
# tscale=oversample #default/

/
/

My GPU is AMD but according to Debian wiki VA-API is also recommended 
for Intel. You may need to install a *va-driver package appropriate for 
your graphics device - 
https://wiki.debian.org/HardwareVideoAcceleration#Intel

Cheers, Roger

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