Vainfo returns "libva error: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so init failed" in dual gpu system

Question

I have a dual gpu system. It has a 2nd generation Sandy Bridge iGPU and an nvidia 650ti. The Nvidia gpu is connected to the display and is using the proprietary drivers. I'm trying to use the iGPU for video encoding.

I have installed the va driver using

sudo apt-get install i965-va-driver

If I run vainfo it returns:

libva info: VA-API version 1.1.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/nvidia_drv_video.so
libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1
vaInitialize failed with error code -1 (unknown libva error),exit

But if I run LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=i965 vainfo it returns:

libva info: VA-API version 1.1.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: User requested driver 'i965'
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_1
libva error: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_drv_video.so init failed
libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1
vaInitialize failed with error code -1 (unknown libva error),exit

Solution 1

A little late, but I ran into the same problem so I thought I'd leave what worked for me. Apparently you need the VDPAU (http://http.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/vdpau/doxygen/html/index.html) wrapper.

sudo apt-get install vdpau-va-driver

After that it returns fine.

libva info: VA-API version 1.1.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/nvidia_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_0
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.1 (libva 2.1.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Splitted-Desktop Systems VDPAU backend for VA-API - 0.7.4

Solution 2

The package vdpau-va-driver is required for hardware acceleration with the NVIDIA proprietary drivers. Canonical dropped the package vdpau-va-driver some time ago for no clear reason. This is reported in Launchpad, please feel free to report that you are affected by clicking on "Does this bug affect you?".

Debian provides an up to date version, currently 0.7.4-7, which can be downloaded here (download the latest 32 bit 64 bit versions) and installed from a command line by running dpkg -i on the respective packages. After the installation the command vainfo is happy again and returns, among other things:

vainfo: Driver version: Splitted-Desktop Systems VDPAU backend for VA-API - 0.7.4

You can then refer to this guide from ArchWiki on how to take advantage of VDPAU in different applications.

Comments

[FragmentalStew]

I finally made some progress on this. I don't know why I'm getting the error in the original question. But if I use 'vainfo --display drm --device /dev/dri/renderD128' it returns that the intel driver is working and that the intel driver is that render device. If I try it with 'renderD129', which is the Nvidia device, it fails. I don't mind this, because my goal was to encode using Quicksync in Linux, using OBS. With the new version 23x of OBS I am able to do this, and have determined that it is the correct device with the command.

[FragmentalStew]

Oh, thanks. vainfo now shows that it's working with the nvidia driver. LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=i965 vainfo still returns an error though. It's possible that using both at the same time isn't possible, or that something else is broken.

[robertspierre]

When I try to install vdpau-va-driver it says However the following packages replace it: mesa-va-drivers:i386 mesa-va-drivers. mesa-va-drivers is installed but the problem persists

[Stéphane Tréboux]

Hi @raffaem, is it possible that you are using the open source Nouveau driver instead of the proprietary Nvidia driver which is being discussed here? Nouveau is FOSS and distributed as part of Mesa. The proprietary Nvidia driver is closed source and distributed by Nvidia.

[Stéphane Tréboux]

I just checked on my system and mesa-va-drivers is installed alongside vdpau-va-driver and poses no issue. I reinstalled vdpau-va-driver using dpkg and could not see any error message. So you see other error messages?

[robertspierre]

No I'm using NVIDIA proprietary I am sure. I avoided the problem by using VDPAU directly in MVP

[Stéphane Tréboux]

sudo apt-get install vdpau-va-driver should not work on recent version of Ubuntu since the package is missing in the sources. So not sure how this answer addresses the original question. Maybe your are using some older version Ubuntu or a different Linux distribution like Debian.

[FragmentalStew]

@StéphaneTréboux Considering that this answer is about 2 years older than your comment, you can expect that it was an earlier version of Ubuntu (or Debian).