Adobe Flash Player Hardware Acceleration on Intel Graphics Cards

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://github.com/i-rinat/libvdpau-va-gl">libvdpau-va-gl</a> is a VDPAU driver that uses OpenGL under the hood to accelerate drawing and scaling, and VA-API (if available) to accelerate video decoding.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Using it, you can get hardware acceleration on some Intel graphics cards for Mplayer </b>(well, we already have <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/use-mplayer-with-vaapi-support-hardware.html">mplayer-vaapi</a> but it hasn't been merged)<b> and even Adobe Flash Player. That means a lot less CPU usage as you'll see below. </b><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/flash-vdpau-intel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="intel flash vdpau ubuntu" border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8i1Yfqveiuryfc_QWHidU6mhKZoQeT_RNhsRnr46QqH1Iivl0KRAltoEEWi5GgODi_x-Lev0TVSWV4mOx81N7V1pYruVUhSyFK-IKz47gb0K_74jL37DIgXy60xRcDgVRF05ZN4dfpfg/s320/flash-vdpau-intel.png" width="320" /></a></div></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">AMD users: in theory, this should also work with AMD cards (Catalyst) however, from what users are <a href="https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=166593&p=2">reporting</a>, it doesn't seem to work properly and the libvdpau-va-gl developer <a href="https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1303921#p1303921">said</a> that he can only test this on Intel, so it's unlikely that the AMD bugs will be fixed soon. However, the open source AMD drivers should have built-in VDPAU support (you need Linux 3.10 and Mesa 9.2).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In my test (Ubuntu 13.10, Intel graphics), a full-screen 1080p flash YouTube video used around 160-170% CPU without libvdpau-va-gl and about 14-17% CPU when using libvdpau-va-gl. There were some occasional spikes when using libvdpau-va-gl, but usually it stayed around those values which is a really great improvement.<br /><br />Note:<b> I've tested this with Firefox and Chromium browsers with Adobe Flash Player 11.2 r202. It doesn't seem to work with Pepper Flash (available by default in Google Chrome)</b>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">libvdpau-va-gl is <b>work-in-progress</b> and while it has worked properly with Adobe Flash Player / Firefox on my system, it may not work properly for you or it may cause problems with other VDPAU-enabled applications and for this reason, it's advisable not to use this system-wide.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Below you can watch a quick video demoing the CPU usage for a YouTube flash video, with and without libvdpau-va-gl:</b></div><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZUmwtx_HA8U" width="480"><br />(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUmwtx_HA8U">direct video link</a>; for more videos, subscribe to our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/nilarimogard">YouTube channel</a>)</iframe></center><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install and set up libvdpau-va-gl in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>1.</b> Firstly, install the VAAPI drivers (for Intel HD Graphics as well as G45 and later)::</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install i965-va-driver</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2.</b> Install libvdpau-va-gl by using the main WebUpd8 PPA (I've used Vincent Bernat's Debian <a href="http://packages.debian.org/sid/libs/libvdpau-va-gl1">packaging</a> - thanks!):</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install libvdpau-va-gl1</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>3.</b> Adobe Flash doesn't use hardware acceleration by default on Linux so we'll have to force it:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo mkdir -p /etc/adobe<br />echo "EnableLinuxHWVideoDecode=1" | sudo tee /etc/adobe/mms.cfg<br />echo "OverrideGPUValidation=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/adobe/mms.cfg</code></pre><br /><b>4. </b>Like I was telling you above, it's not a good idea to enable libvdpau-va-gl system-wide yet. Instead, you can simply launch an application with "VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl".<br /><br />Example: to launch Firefox with libvdpau-va-gl enabled, use:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl firefox</code></pre><br />To enable libvdpau-va-gl system-wide (not recommended for now because this may cause problems with some VDPAU-enabled applications), you need to open <i>/etc/X11/Xsession.d/20vdpau-va-gl</i> as root with a text editor and uncomment (remove the "#" in front of the lines) the last two lines. Or simply copy/paste the commands below:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo sed -i "s/^# \[/\[/g" /etc/X11/Xsession.d/20vdpau-va-gl<br />sudo sed -i "s/^# export/ export/g" /etc/X11/Xsession.d/20vdpau-va-gl</code></pre><br /><b>5.</b> Optional: check if libvdpau-va-gl/VDPAU is working.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">You can check if libvdpau-va-gl is working and Adobe Flash Player uses hardware acceleration by right clicking a Flash video on YouTube and selecting "Stats for nerds". The stats box that shows up should display the following: "accelerated video rendering, accelerated video decoding", like in this <a href="http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1113424/img/flash-vdpau-intel.png">screenshot</a>.</div><br />Another way to check if libvdpau-va-gl/VDPAU is working propely, install vdpauinfo:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install vdpauinfo</code></pre><br />Then, run:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>VDPAU_DRIVER=va_gl vdpauinfo</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">And you should get something like <a href="http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=cwYQzGyk">THIS</a>. If you get an error (for example "Failed to open VDPAU backend"), either your graphics card doesn't support VA-API (since this VDPAU driver requires VA-API) or you've missed a step from the instructions above.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Arch Linux</b> users can install libvdpau-va-gl from <a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/libvdpau-va-gl/">AUR</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>For more information, source code or bug reports, see the libvdpau-va-gl <a href="https://github.com/i-rinat/libvdpau-va-gl">GitHub page</a>.</b></div>

Adobe Flash Player Hardware Acceleration on Intel Graphics Cards

libvdpau-va-gl is a VDPAU driver that uses OpenGL under the hood to accelerate drawing and scaling, and VA-API (if available) to accelerate...

+ Read more »

Install Pepper Flash Player For Chromium In Ubuntu Via PPA

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>As you probably know, the latest Adobe Flash Player versions are available on Linux only <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/02/adobe-flash-for-linux-will-only-be.html">through Google Chrome</a>, while other browsers are stuck with version 11.2. If you want to use Chromium browser instead of Google Chrome, here's an easy way to install Pepper Flash Player.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a>The latest Adobe Flash Player that's bundled with Google Chrome doesn't work with browsers like Firefox for instance, because it requires an API called "Pepper" that's only available in Google Chrome and Chromium. A while back we wrote about <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/09/how-to-make-chromium-use-flash-player.html">using Pepper Flash from Google Chrome in Chromium</a> browser by installing Google Chrome and manually adding the Pepper Flash plugin but here's an easier way to do it under Ubuntu: by <b>using a PPA.</b> <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/chromium-browser-pepper-flash.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Pepper Flash Chromium Browser" border="0" height="189" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jRQ5jEdIhFM/UX-ZpfH3GmI/AAAAAAAAPHM/5Rv6Bygj2ig/s320/chromium-browser-pepper-flash.png" title="Pepper Flash Chromium Browser" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In case you're wondering what are the differences between Google Chrome and Chromium (besides the logo), here are a few:</div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Google Chrome is not open source (and thus not available in the official distribution repositories) while Chromium is;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Google Chrome is tested by the Chrome developers while Chromium may be modified by distributions; for instance, Chromium in Ubuntu is modified to support the WebApps feature while Google Chrome, being closed source, doesn't come with these modifications and thus doesn't support WebApps;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Google Chrome comes with optional user metrics;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Google Chrome comes with proprietary plugins such as a PDF viewer and Adobe Flash Player (Pepper).</li></ul><br /><br /><h2>Install Pepper Flash for Chromium in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Pepper Flash Installer available in the PPA automatically downloads Google Chrome (stable), extracts the Pepper Flash files and installs only those files. Google Chrome itself won't be installed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The package is just an installer and doesn't contain any Google Chrome / Adobe Flash files, like the official flashplugin-installer or out <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/01/install-oracle-java-jdk-7-in-ubuntu-via.html">oracle-java-installer</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To add the PPA and install Adobe Pepper Flash from Google Chrome in Ubuntu (to be used in Chromium), use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:skunk/pepper-flash<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install pepflashplugin-installer</code></pre><br />Once installed, there's<b> one more step</b> to get Chromium to use the Google Chrome Pepper Flash Player: you need to open <i>/etc/chromium-browser/default</i> as root with a text editor (e.g.: gedit - which I'll use in the command below):<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install gksu #it`s not installed by default in Ubuntu 13.04<br />gksu gksu gedit /etc/chromium-browser/default</code></pre>("gksu" is used twice to avoid a bug with Gedit opening a blank file next to our file) <br /><br />and in that file, <b>paste the following line at the bottom of the file</b> (after the CHROMIUM_FLAGS="" line):<br /><pre class="source-code"><code>. /usr/lib/pepflashplugin-installer/pepflashplayer.sh</code></pre>(yes, there's a dot in the beginning of the line, then a space!)<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/chromium-pepper-flash.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Pepper Flash Chromium Browser" border="0" height="123" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NRauwHA3aiE/UX-Zv5R5VeI/AAAAAAAAPHU/Z5cmIO5Tuj4/s320/chromium-pepper-flash.png" title="Pepper Flash Chromium Browser" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That's it. Now restart Chromium browser, visit <i>chrome://plugins</i> and check the Adobe Flash Player version (it's possible you have two, there's no need to disable the old one because Pepper Flash will be used by default since it's newer) - it shouldn't be 11.2.x but a newer version (e.g.: 11.7.700.x at the time I'm writing this article).<br /><br /><b>Arch Linux</b> users can install Pepper Flash for Chromium basically in the same way, by using <a href="https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/chromium-pepper-flash-stable/">THIS</a> AUR package.</div><br /><i>If you don't want to use a PPA for this, see: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/09/how-to-make-chromium-use-flash-player.html">Use Pepper Flash Player From Google Chrome In Chromium Browser</a>.</i><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://www.lffl.org/2013/04/flash-player-pepper-su-chromium-in.html">lffl.org</a></i></div>

Install Pepper Flash Player For Chromium In Ubuntu Via PPA

As you probably know, the latest Adobe Flash Player versions are available on Linux only through Google Chrome , while other browsers are st...

+ Read more »

How To Get Flash Player To Work With Steam For Linux On 64bit

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/steam-no-flash.png"><img alt="Steam for Linux 64bit no Flash" src="http://img.netupd8.com/steam-no-flash_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>If you're using <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/12/steam-for-linux-now-available-to-all.html">Steam for Linux</a> beta on 64bit, chances are you can't watch game trailers because Steam can't find Flash Player and you get a message similar to the one below:</b></div><br /><blockquote>"You need to have a specific Flash Player installed to view video content in Steam. Please follow these directions to get the right version for Steam. You will need this Flash player even if you already have the latest player for your default web browser".</blockquote><br />So here's how to get Adobe Flash Player to work with Steam for Linux on 64bit.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>1. </b>Download Adobe Flash Player 32bit tar.gz archive from <a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/completion/?installer=Flash_Player_11.2_for_other_Linux_%28.tar.gz%29_32-bit">HERE</a> (yes, you'll need the 32bit version even though you're running 64bit) and extract it in your home folder.</div><br /><b>2. </b>Create the "plugins" folder inside the <i>~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/ </i>directory using the following command:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>mkdir -p ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/plugins</code></pre><br /><b>3.</b> Copy the "libflashplayer.so" file (available in the folder extracted under step 1) to <i>~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/plugins</i> - if you've extracted the downloaded Flash Player 32bit archive in your home directory, simply use the following command to copy it to the right folder:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>cp ~/install_flash_player_11_linux.i386/libflashplayer.so ~/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/plugins</code></pre><br />Now you can delete the "install_flash_player_11_linux.i386" folder from your home directory.<br /><br /><b>4. </b>Make sure libxt6:i386 is installed:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install libxt6:i386</code></pre><br /><b>Then, restart Steam for Linux and Flash should now work on 64bit:</b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/steam-for-linux-flash-64bit.png"><img alt="Steam for Linux game trailer Flash 64bit" src="http://img.netupd8.com/steam-for-linux-flash-64bit_thumb.png" /></a></div><b><br />If that Flash still doesn't work</b>, try to copy "libflashplayer.so" to the "~/Steam/ubuntu12_32/plugins/" folder instead (some old installations may still use this folder).<br /><br /><br />Note: the instructions above have been tested on Ubuntu 12.10 64bit.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>thanks to Roberto @ <a href="http://www.lffl.org/2013/01/steam-e-il-problema-di-flash-player-in.html">lffl.org</a> for the info!</i></div>

How To Get Flash Player To Work With Steam For Linux On 64bit

If you're using Steam for Linux beta on 64bit, chances are you can't watch game trailers because Steam can't find Flash Player ...

+ Read more »

Use Pepper Flash Player From Google Chrome In Chromium Browser [How To]

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VbSdn0RaBls/UEYTisZUGAI/AAAAAAAAJ58/J3ccfm_r-E4/s1600/chromium-flash-ppapi.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="chromium flash player pepper" border="0" height="173" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VbSdn0RaBls/UEYTisZUGAI/AAAAAAAAJ58/J3ccfm_r-E4/s320/chromium-flash-ppapi.png" title="chromium flash player pepper" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Adobe Flash Player 11.2.x is the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/02/adobe-flash-for-linux-will-only-be.html" title="Adobe Flash For Linux Will Only Be Available For Chrome">last release</a> available for Linux, future versions only being available through a new API called "Pepper" as part of Google Chrome. If you want to use the latest Flash Player 11.3.x in Linux, but with Chromium, not Google Chrome, here's what you must do.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>1.</b> Firstly, you'll have to <a href="http://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel">download</a> and install Google Chrome. Any version will do; in my test I've used Google Chrome unstable (23) and Chromium stable and unstable (21 and 23; <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/09/new-chromium-stable-and-development.html" title="New Chromium Stable And Development PPAs For Ubuntu 12.04">PPA here</a>).</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2. Now, to launch Chromium browser with the Adobe Flash Player version bundled with Google Chrome, use the following command:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>chromium-browser --ppapi-flash-path=/opt/google/chrome*/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so --ppapi-flash-version=11.3.31.323</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Important note: if you don't use the "--ppapi-flash-version" flag, the Flash Player version reported in <i>chrome://plugins</i> will be wrong. You can find out what version to enter here by opening a file manager and pointing it to <i>/opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash</i>, then open the "manifest.json" file and you'll find out the Flash Player version number under "version" (it should be on line 4).</div><br />Now open a new tab and enter "chrome://plugins", and see if the Flash plugin version is correct. You can then check the Adobe Flash version you're using, <a href="http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/find-version-flash-player.html">here</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Update:</b>  an easy way to always have the correct Flash Player version in Chromium is to do the following. Open <i>~/.profile</i> with a text editor:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>gedit ~/.profile</code></pre><br />And add the following line:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>export PEPPER_FLASH_VERSION=$(grep '"version":' /opt/google/chrome*/PepperFlash/manifest.json| grep -Po '(?<=version": ")(?:\d|\.)*')</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>3.</b> Try it out and if Adobe Flash Player that comes bundled with Google Chrome is working fine for you in Chromium, let's make it permanent so you don't have to use any command line parameters in the future.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For this, you need to open the <i>/etc/chromium-browser/default</i> file as root with a text editor:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>gksu gedit /etc/chromium-browser/default</code></pre>And replace CHROMIUM_FLAGS="" with the following:<br /><pre class="source-code"><code>CHROMIUM_FLAGS="--ppapi-flash-path=/opt/google/chrome*/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so --ppapi-flash-version=$PEPPER_FLASH_VERSION"</code></pre><br />This will automatically get the Flash Player version from the Google Chrome manifest file once you log out and log back in.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Arch Linux </b>users can install <a href="http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=60443">THIS</a> package via AUR instead of following the instructions above.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>info via <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1976503">ubuntuforums</a>; thanks to Gregory Kramida for Flash version tweak.</i></div>

Use Pepper Flash Player From Google Chrome In Chromium Browser [How To]

Adobe Flash Player 11.2.x is the last release available for Linux, future versions only being available through a new API called "Pepp...

+ Read more »