Using Chromium to play accelerated video freezes/locks up

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Hello! Thank you for sharing a detailed description of your setup and the issue you’re encountering with Chromium video playback on the Verdin iMX8M Plus with the Dahlia carrier board.

Based on your workflow and observations, here are some important points and recommendations:

Chromium GPU Acceleration on Verdin iMX8M Plus

  • Chromium version 117.0.5938.132 is indeed the last version confirmed to work well with GPU acceleration on this platform (reference).
  • Your check of chrome://gpu showing “Video Decode: Hardware accelerated” confirms the GPU part is functioning—at least initially.

Observed Issue

  • Video plays fine until you interact with the player, after which Chromium locks up.
  • After the lock-up, relaunching Chromium doesn’t show its window.

Suggestions and Workarounds

1. Chromium Launch Command Modification

The --in-process-gpu flag can sometimes make video decoding unstable on i.MX8 platforms and is generally not recommended unless specifically required. Try launching Chromium without this flag:

chromium --no-sandbox --ozone-platform=wayland --kiosk --no-first-run https://www.webmfiles.org/demo-files/

Avoiding --in-process-gpu helps Chromium use the GPU process, which tends to be more stable on the Verdin iMX8M Plus (reference).

2. Wayland Compositor and Zombie Chromium Processes

If Chromium locks up, subsequent launches failing to show the window typically means either:

  • The Wayland compositor needs restarting.
  • Stale Chromium processes are left running.

After the lock-up, before launching Chromium again, run:

pkill chromium

Additionally, restarting the Wayland compositor (for example, Weston) might be necessary:

systemctl restart weston

3. Debug Logging

If the modified launch command still leads to issues, gather more details by running:

chromium --no-sandbox --ozone-platform=wayland --enable-logging=stderr --v=1 --kiosk --no-first-run https://www.webmfiles.org/demo-files/

This will help you observe errors or warnings during the lock-up episode (reference).

4. Consider GStreamer for Video Playback

For robust video playback with hardware acceleration, consider using GStreamer directly, as it is well-supported and proven stable on the Verdin iMX8M Plus:

This approach bypasses the web browser for video content and may be a better fit if the application allows it.

5. Known Stability Limitations

The Verdin iMX8M Plus does support GPU acceleration in Chromium, but stability with in-browser video decoding can be affected by:

  • Video player UI interactions,
  • Certain flags (like --in-process-gpu),
  • Compositor stability.

If your use case critically depends on accelerated and robust web-based video playback, monitor upstream Yocto and Chromium developments for future fixes.

To summarize:

  • Try running Chromium without the --in-process-gpu flag.
  • Clear up lingering processes with pkill chromium and restart the compositor if needed.
  • Collect debug logs if issues persist.
  • Consider GStreamer for direct video playback if suitable for your application.

Let me know if the above helps, or if you have further results or logs to share!

Best regards,
Toradex AI Assistant.

Useful references: