Clear Fraction, the third-party repository for Clear Linux

marioroy · August 9, 2022, 5:49am

I like very much to archive/deprecate the ffmpeg-on-clear-linux project. Unfortunately, the ffmpeg binary in Clear Fraction lacks nvdec (cuda) support.

Basically, it requires one tiny dependency to be able to pass the --enable-nvdec option to the ffmpeg configure script. The great news is that one can build ffmpeg with nvdec support without NVIDIA driver / CUDA Toolkit.

Dependency needed / package name: nv-codec-headers

nvver="11.1.5.1"
url="https://github.com/FFmpeg/nv-codec-headers/releases/download/n${nvver}/nv-codec-headers-${nvver}.tar.gz"
curl -LO ${url}

cd nv-codec-headers-${nvver}
# build
make PREFIX=/usr LIBDIR=lib64
# install
make PREFIX=/usr LIBDIR=lib64 install

Add option to ffmpeg configure.

--enable-nvdec

Before - Clear Fraction without nvdec support

Enabled hwaccels: (from ./configure output)
av1_vaapi               mpeg1_xvmc              vp8_vaapi
h263_vaapi              mpeg2_vaapi             vp9_vaapi
h264_vaapi              mpeg2_xvmc              wmv3_vaapi
hevc_vaapi              mpeg4_vaapi
mjpeg_vaapi             vc1_vaapi

Hardware acceleration methods: (from ffmpeg -hwaccels)
vaapi
qsv
drm
vulkan

After - Clear Fraction with nvdec support

Enabled hwaccels: (from ./configure output)
av1_nvdec               mjpeg_vaapi             vc1_nvdec
av1_vaapi               mpeg1_nvdec             vc1_vaapi
h263_vaapi              mpeg1_xvmc              vp8_nvdec
h264_nvdec              mpeg2_nvdec             vp8_vaapi
h264_vaapi              mpeg2_vaapi             vp9_nvdec
hevc_nvdec              mpeg2_xvmc              vp9_vaapi
hevc_vaapi              mpeg4_nvdec             wmv3_nvdec
mjpeg_nvdec             mpeg4_vaapi             wmv3_vaapi

Hardware acceleration methods: (from ffmpeg -hwaccels)
cuda
vaapi
qsv
drm
vulkan

Currently (using Clear Fraction’s FFmpeg), folks using NVIDIA graphics can decode using VA-API.

ffmpeg -y -hwaccel vaapi -c:v vp9 -i input_vp9.webm -f null -
ffmpeg -y -hwaccel vaapi -c:v av1 -i input_av1.mp4 -f null -

Wish List - Summary

Please add the nv-codec-headers build dependency and the ffmpeg configure option --enable-nvdec. That will allow folks using NVIDIA graphics to select nvdec acceleration. The -c:v av1_cuvid selection for AV1 content is noticeably faster.

ffmpeg -y -hwaccel nvdec -c:v vp9_cuvid -i input_vp9.webm -f null - # 1436 fps
ffmpeg -y -hwaccel nvdec -c:v vp9 -i input_vp9.webm -f null -       # 1428 fps

ffmpeg -y -hwaccel nvdec -c:v av1_cuvid -i input_av1.mp4 -f null -  # 1629 fps
ffmpeg -y -hwaccel nvdec -c:v av1 -i input_av1.mp4 -f null -        #  895 fps

See also, Fedora Koji URL.

Thank you.

marioroy · August 9, 2022, 6:08am

The Clear Linux user experience has immensely improved for folks using NVIDIA graphics. See nvidia-driver-on-clear-linux. The missing piece now is nvdec support in Clear Fraction’s ffmpeg binary.

Thus the reason for the kind request above.

marioroy · August 9, 2022, 7:21am

nv-codec-headers.spec for Clear Fraction

Name:           nv-codec-headers
Version:        11.1.5.1
Release:        1
Summary:        FFmpeg version of Nvidia Codec SDK headers
License:        MIT
URL:            https://github.com/FFmpeg/nv-codec-headers
Source:         %url/archive/n%{version}/%{name}-n%{version}.tar.gz
BuildRequires:  make

%description
FFmpeg version of headers required to interface with Nvidias codec APIs.

%prep
%autosetup -n %{name}-n%{version}
sed -i -e 's@/include@/include/ffnvcodec@g' ffnvcodec.pc.in

# Extract license
sed -n '4,25p' include/ffnvcodec/nvEncodeAPI.h > LICENSE
sed -i '1,22s/^.\{,3\}//' LICENSE

%build
%make_build PREFIX=%{_prefix} LIBDIR=lib64

%install
%make_install PREFIX=%{_prefix} LIBDIR=lib64

%files
%doc README
%license LICENSE
%{_includedir}/ffnvcodec/
%{_libdir}/pkgconfig/ffnvcodec.pc

%changelog
# based on https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=26434

Clear Fraction ffmpeg.spec modifications

It requires FFmpeg 5.1.0 as it provides AV1 acceleration on the GPU. I tested older 5.0.1, and -c:v av1_cuvid failed.

%global commit0 ffaf6061309b581eed1291d747fa419cab0d7565
Version: 5.1.0

BuildRequires: nv-codec-headers

./configure ... --enable-nvdec

Testing VA-API and NVDEC using NVIDIA graphics

# Install the YouTube downloader script. Installs in ~/.local/bin/
pip3 install --user --upgrade yt-dlp

# Download VP9 and AV1 media for testing
# Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K ‘Balloons’
cd ~/Downloads
~/.local/bin/yt-dlp -F https://youtu.be/mIAfxj7nd9k
~/.local/bin/yt-dlp -f 248 https://youtu.be/mIAfxj7nd9k -o input_vp9.webm
~/.local/bin/yt-dlp -f 399 https://youtu.be/mIAfxj7nd9k -o input_av1.mp4

VP9

export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=nvdec (or nvidia)
ffmpeg -hwaccel vaapi -c:v vp9 -i input_vp9.webm -f null -       # 1311 fps
ffmpeg -hwaccel nvdec -c:v vp9 -i input_vp9.webm -f null -       # 1428 fps
ffmpeg -hwaccel nvdec -c:v vp9_cuvid -i input_vp9.webm -f null - # 1440 fps

AV1, minimally 3000 series

export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=nvdec (or nvidia)
ffmpeg -hwaccel vaapi -c:v av1 -i input_av1.mp4 -f null -        #  748 fps
ffmpeg -hwaccel nvdec -c:v av1 -i input_av1.mp4 -f null -        #  871 fps
ffmpeg -hwaccel nvdec -c:v av1_cuvid -i input_av1.mp4 -f null -  # 1630 fps

paulcarroty · August 9, 2022, 8:09pm

@marioroy not interested 'cause no NVidia hardware around, but CF is always open for collaboration. I’ll give you the Github access for a test bundle, then we’ll see.

It requires FFmpeg 5.1.0

Soon.

Also check GitHub - insilications/nv-codec-headers, https://github.com/insilications/ffmpeg/blob/f2fd0a37638558ebd01301abfc97c8fcee52556b/ffmpeg.spec.

marioroy · August 9, 2022, 9:29pm

The following are the actions I took before making the request. I wanted to be sure working -hwaccel nvdec.

Installed Clear Linux 36760 (using nouveau driver)
Obtained fdk-aac.spec, lame.spec, x264.spec, x265.spec, and ffmpeg.spec from Clear Fraction. Basically, I built FFmpeg which involved installing various CL dependencies. That went well.
Created a spec file for nv-codec-headers (minimally, 11.1.5.1) which is the current version. It works with the 470 NV drivers and above. There are no c source, simply header files and a pkgconfig file. Running rpmbuild completed successfully and installed the RPM.
Next, I modified the Clear Fraction ffmpeg.spec file to version 5.1, added BuildRequires: nv-codec-headers and extra configure option --enable-nvdec. That went well. The ffmpeg binary -hwaccels mentions cuda support. Note that the NV proprietary driver is not yet installed. Meaning that any author providing FFmpeg may add nv-codec support without NV hardware. FFmpeg’s configure --enable-nvdec ensures all is well.
Finally, I installed the NV proprietary driver (including the NVDEC back-end VA-API driver) and tested latest 470, 510, and 515. For ffmpeg testing, I ensured -hwaccel vaapi -c:v {vp9, av1} and -hwaccel nvdec -c:v {vp9, vp9_cuvid, av1, av1_cuvid} working. Though, AV1 on the GPU requires FFmpeg 5.1.0 minimally.

Regarding testing, the FFmpeg configure script involves testing for --enable-nvdec. Thus, testing for cuda support is simply looking for cuda in the ffmpeg -hwaccels output. That is all one can do without NVIDIA graphics.

paulcarroty · August 10, 2022, 5:50am

Access granted, push all above to Github.

chaoslinux · August 11, 2022, 10:06pm

Thanks for doing this. Run into an error with Brave.

Warning: File /usr/bin/brave-browser-stable does not have ‘execute’ permission so it won’t be exported

Any help?

anon91923227 · August 11, 2022, 11:23pm

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/brave-browser-stable

chaoslinux · August 12, 2022, 12:04am

Thanks for the reply.

The binary isn’t installed. No such file is created at the end of the installation. I guess it’s not exported into /usr/bin/ as the error quoted above says.

paulcarroty · August 12, 2022, 6:54am

Won’t be exported 'cause the broken symlink: /usr/bin/brave-browser-nightly -> /opt/brave.com/brave-nightly/brave-browser-nightly

It was fixed a long time ago, just run Brave from desktop launcher. Even more, /opt/3rd-party/bin is useless 'cause performance penalty and export errors like this one, and can be removed.

chaoslinux · August 12, 2022, 11:19am

Ah that was helpful. I run XFCE so I just copied into the applications folder.

cp -s /opt/3rd-party/bundles/clearfraction/usr/share/applications/* ~/.local/share/applications/

Thanks again!

paulcarroty · September 4, 2022, 5:12pm

Project news:

new repository setup, please update your configs
new bundle codecs-cuda for NVidia users, big thanks to @marioroy; he also contributed many improvements.
many fixes and performance optimizations

paulcarroty · December 8, 2022, 6:05am

Project news:

We’re moving to a new repository hosting: update your configs
Project Wiki is up and open for contribution
New bundles and performance optimizations

paulcarroty · January 19, 2023, 8:27pm

Now available: Lapce - Lightning-fast and Powerful Code Editor written in Rust

paulcarroty · February 25, 2023, 5:15pm

Project news:

Welcome our new Patreon backer!
New application: Webapp-manager - run websites as if they were apps.
Shotwell removed due to build issues, will return in next release

leiniercs · March 1, 2023, 3:50am

Hello. Your repository have something great: codecs-cuda and brave. Fully native and accelerated on CL. I have a question: do you know other 3rd-party repositories that have more bundles?

Another question: is it possible to build GNOME from sources and provide gnome-desktop-base (GNOME itself), gnome-desktop-core (GNOME Core Apps) and gnome-desktop-circle (GNOME Circle Apps) bundles? You can take a look at https://apps.gnome.org/

It is happening that CL have poor support for GNOME and it have it trimmed. Would be great to be able to have the entire GNOME desktop, plus some predefined configurations: like enabled animations, the experimental scaling factor, maybe others.

leiniercs · March 1, 2023, 3:20pm

Hello once again. There is something that is happening to me right now. I want to build a software from source that depends on libraries and headers from ffmpeg. I confirmed that codecs-cuda doesn’t provide the headers, static libraries nor the pkg-config file. It would be great if you include that in the bundle in order to allow people to build software that depends on ffmpeg.

djunaaja · March 7, 2023, 2:38am

building software with dependencies not from official repo can a bit tricky. i think it’s stateless concept problem

paulcarroty · March 7, 2023, 4:11pm

@leiniercs, hello.

Nope.
It’s possible with some patches.
Including headers is pointless 'cause gigantic dev bundes. I use this script to build packages, the Clear use mock & koji. So people can actually build software that depends on ffmpeg.

NVidia stuff available thanks to @marioroy, he’s left and I’ll try to maintain his legacy. About GNOME apps - I’m don’t use GNOME, so no motivation to add, but can help if anyone wants to contribute.

paulcarroty · March 12, 2023, 12:22pm

Project news:

the repository format bump
many updates including ffmpeg 6
qt6ct now available - allows users to configure Qt6 settings (theme, font, icons, etc.)