Ubuntu VM and Intel Quick Sync H264 HW acceleration

[bucde]

Hello all,

I am trying to enable hardware acceleration for NoMachine-server in my Ubuntu vm.
I’ve read several threads here on the forum and tried a few things, but the log says it still uses software encoding.

Here is some information about my system/setup:

Host:
Intel i5 6600
Proxmox VE 6.3-2
All configuration for pcie passthrough activated.

VM:
Pcie passthrough for Intel graphics card activated (and functional).
Clean installation of Ubuntu 20.04 and upgraded to latest packages.
Applied configuration from [1].
Add user nx to groups video and render.
Install latest Intel graphics driver from here [2] for Ubuntu 20.04

vainfo output (in attachment)

session log (in attachment)

I hope you can put me on the right track.

[1] https://forums.nomachine.com/topic/anyone-gotten-quicksync-encoding-working-on-a-recent-ubuntu#post-32641
[2] https://software.intel.com/content/www/us/en/develop/topics/graphics-linux-drivers.html

Attachments:

1. vainfo-output_session-log.txt

[bucde]

I have generated few more information.

After I installed the debug library from here [1] the session log (attached) file shows that the quick sync encoder could not be initialized.

I fixed the problem that the intel gpu was on the wrong pci slot in the virtual machine. Now it has the pci id

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 530 [8086:1912] (rev 06)

[1] https://forums.nomachine.com/topic/verify-gpu-encoding-used#post-32265

[bucde]

Sorry for second repost, but nothing changed till now.

I have created a complete new VM with Kubuntu 20.04.03 (some info in lspci.txt and vainfo.txt).
After updating all packages I tried some tests:

1. Use this [1] tool to check hardware encoding -> it works! (attached screenshot)

2. Change Firefox settings to use hardware decoding [2] -> it works!

3. Install latest NoMachine (7.7.4) for Ubuntu -> does not work!

4. Set file link /opt/intel/mediasdk/lib64/iHD_drv_video.so -> /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/iHD_drv_video.so and install intel-non-free-driver plus libmfx1 -> does not work!

5. ‘Install’ nx extended debug lib -> see attached session log

Please give me some information about it.
Can I do some more tests?

[1] https://github.com/bmegli/hardware-video-encoder
[2] https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2021/08/enable-hardware-video-acceleration-va-api-for-firefox-in-ubuntu-20-04-18-04-higher/

Attachments:

1. 

   working_hardware_encoding.jpg
   

1. session.txt
2. lspci.txt
3. vainfo.txt

[Carin]

Hi bucde,

I am sorry for the delay. We had to investigate and decided to create this Feature Request:
Adding support for VA-API hardware H.264 encoding on Linux
https://knowledgebase.nomachine.com/FR11S04222

 

[nathan.osullivan]

I wrestled with this same issue last few days having also seen https://forums.nomachine.com/topic/anyone-gotten-quicksync-encoding-working-on-a-recent-ubuntu#post-32641  . I can only conclude that information is out-of-date.

What ultimately did work for me is to just install the Intel Media SDK , which despite what’s written on nomachine knowledgebase is actually very easy nowadays (at least on Ubuntu)

1. Delete your existing fake /opt/intel/mediasdk that contains symlinks etc (rm -rf /opt/intel/mediasdk)

2. wget https://github.com/Intel-Media-SDK/MediaSDK/releases/download/intel-mediasdk-21.2.3/MediaStack.tar.gz (I’m not sure which version to use exactly, but this one worked for me.)

3. tar xf MediaStack.tar.gz && cd MediaStack/ && bash install_media.sh

Install process takes just a few seconds, then reboot as directed.  Worked straight away with no further tweaking. For reference, my ~/.nx/node/C-*/session file contains this blob confirming it is all working:

libva info: VA-API version 1.12.0
libva info: User environment variable requested driver ‘iHD’
libva info: Trying to open /opt/intel/mediasdk/lib64/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_12
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
Info: Using Intel H.264 hardware encoder.

Hope this spares someone hours of frustration 🙂

[Britgirl]

https://forums.nomachine.com/topic/anyone-gotten-quicksync-encoding-working-on-a-recent-ubuntu#post-32641 . I can only conclude that information is out-of-date.

Can I ask which information you think is out-of-date?

[nathan.osullivan]

> Can I ask which information you think is out-of-date?

I’m referring to https://knowledgebase.nomachine.com/AR09O00938 for example:

> E.g. on Ubuntu 20.04 it’s enough to install the following:
> sudo apt install intel-media-va-driver libmfx1 libva2 libva-drm2

That’s not “enough”, and even with the symlink tricks on ( https://forums.nomachine.com/topic/anyone-gotten-quicksync-encoding-working-on-a-recent-ubuntu ) it still will not work.

The information further down on how to install the MediaSDK is out-of-date too, and makes it look far more complicated than the process actually is.

[Britgirl]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We’ve now updated the article with the additional information and feedback you provided, so thanks again for pointing this out. As soon as we’ve added support for VA-API, we’ll update the article again to make this clear.

[Author]

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