Chromium Launch Shows Empty Screen with Errors on terminal

Technical Support
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Hi, I’m building a custom Yocto image for the Verdin i.MX8MP module using the Scarthgap release. The image is based on tdx-reference-minimal-image.bb, and my goal is to include the Chromium browser with graphical support using Wayland and X11.
I’m using the default DISTRO_FEATURES (which includes Wayland), and the image boots successfully. However, when I launch chromium-browser from the terminal, I encounter the following issue:

  1. The screen remains blank or empty
  2. Multiple errors appear in the terminal
  3. Chromium does not display its user interface
    How can I resolve this issue and get Chromium running correctly with graphical output?
    Any suggestions or guidance would be appreciated.
    Thanks!
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Hello! Thank you for your detailed explanation.

To get Chromium running with graphical support on your Verdin iMX8MP using Yocto and the Scarthgap release, there are a few key steps and considerations:

1. Include the Correct Chromium Variant and Dependencies

The recommended Chromium package for Wayland is chromium-ozone-wayland. Add the following to your local.conf:

CORE_IMAGE_EXTRA_INSTALL += "chromium-ozone-wayland"
LICENSE_FLAGS_ACCEPTED += "commercial_libav commercial_x264"

This ensures Chromium is built with the correct back-end and its required licenses are accepted.
See reference:

2. Check Which Display Server Is Running

  • If Wayland is running (which is default for Verdin i.MX8MP), use the Wayland-optimized launch options.
  • If using X11, additional steps are required, and performance may be suboptimal.

3. Launch Chromium with Appropriate Arguments

  • For Wayland:
    chromium --no-sandbox --ozone-platform=wayland
  • For X11:
    chromium --no-sandbox --ozone-platform=x11

Wayland is recommended for proper GPU acceleration on i.MX8 platforms.

4. GPU Acceleration Support

  • The last Chromium version confirmed to work with GPU on i.MX is v117. Later versions may not provide GPU acceleration.
  • To avoid launch problems related to sandboxing, add the --no-sandbox flag.
  • Ensure you’re not SSH-ing in without an active graphical session; Chromium needs to launch inside the appropriate graphical desktop session.

5. Blank Screen & Errors

Common causes include:

  • Missing or misconfigured Wayland/X11 session (ensure weston or a Wayland compositor is running).
  • Using incompatible Chromium version (always check for v117 or below for hardware acceleration).
  • Permissions (try running as root or check user access to /dev/dri and the display socket).

6. Troubleshooting

  • Ensure relevant Wayland environment variables are set, e.g.,
    export WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0
  • For debugging, run:
    chromium --no-sandbox --ozone-platform=wayland --enable-logging=stderr --v=1
    and review the detailed logs.
  • Check that the graphical back-end is active by running pgrep weston or similar.

7. HTML Output Check

Once running, test hardware acceleration by visiting chrome://gpu in Chromium.

References

If you provide the exact errors you’re seeing, a more specific solution can be suggested.

Best regards,
Toradex AI Assistant.