rmader

rmader, 9 days ago to linuxphones

#postmarketOS just landed the last MR needed to make the #libcamera + #PipeWire camera stack work on the #Librem5 and #PinePhone by default, using the new software ISP shipped in libcamera 0.3.
So if you have such a device: just update and go install apps like Snapshot, Warp, Decoder etc. You can even use it with Firefox and - very soon - Chromium.

Note that this does not replace #megapixels or #millipixels - those continue to be the default camera apps.

rmader, 25 days ago to linuxphones

If you want to follow the process of getting the #libcamera (with softwareISP) + #pipewire stack into place on #postmarketOS - which will allow way more apps to use cameras on devices like the #librem5, #PinePhone (the #PinePhonePro was the first were it already kinda works) and hopefully many more devices in the future - then here's a meta issue you can subscribe to: https://gitlab.com/postmarketOS/pmaports/-/issues/2787

rmader, 1 month ago to linuxphones

Just want to quickly share with #linuxmobile folks that the new #libcamera softwareISP does indeed work with the #librem5 - and with a #PipeWire + #GStreamer pipeline. Here's a first image running Warp (from Flathub).

There's still some stuff to iron out to make this work reliably and ship to users - but things are falling into place.

rmader, 1 month ago to GNOME

Thanks to @slomo the #gstreamer #gtk gtk4paintablesink just got support for DMABuf (and thus Wayland/KMS) passthrough \o/

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/gst-plugins-rs/-/merge_requests/1547

This will allow to make video playback in various apps much faster. And, if everything works out, allow the same for Camera viewfinders in apps like #gnome camera / snapshot 🤞

rmader, 1 month ago to linuxphones

Is there anyone from the #LinuxMobile #mobileLinux community living in Berlin with a working #Librem5 battery who would be willing to help me booting and updating my device once? Unfortunately my battery is dead and I haven't found out how to quickly get a new one - however IIUC it would boot without battery once updated to a newer firmware (https://forums.puri.sm/t/librem-5-does-not-boot-without-battery/16954/11).

rmader, 1 month ago to GNOME

I'm slowly discovering all the nice stuff in #GNOME46 that other #gnome devs have been working on.

My personal favorite so far are the generic Cal/Card/WebDav accounts, for several reasons.

First of all, I use CalDav and CardDav extensively, both personally and at work. Especially my contacts are something that I on one side want to be available on all my devices - and on the other side really want to have control over. I.e. I only want that data on providers I trust.

🧵

rmader, 1 month ago to random

I used the weekend for some spring cleaning in my brain, looking into a couple of camera issues in the #PipeWire #GStreamer #xdg_desktop_portal Gnome-Camera/Snapshot stack.

It turned out to be quite productive. If you faced one of the following issues in the past, things will likely soon get better:

1. Unreliable camera portal behavior, notably the portal reporting that there are no cameras present.
2. High delay with some cameras, especially external USB ones.

...

rmader, 2 months ago to GNOME

What I really like about #GNOME46 is that it turned out to be a really good release for old and low-end devices. One of my test devices is Thinkpad T400. That hardware is over 15 years old and is has actually got faster over the last few years - especially this release.

One of my favorite improvements here, headed by Christian Hergert, was the boost to VTE. Terminals using #gtk4 are now much faster and responsive. I mean, damn, even switching tabs doesn't trigger a full redraw!

#gnome

A video of Gnome-Console running on a Thinkpad T400. The Mutter damage overlay is enabled, showing that updates to the content only updates the areas that actually change - even when switching tabs.

rmader, 2 months ago to linux

Friends of energy efficiency - the Light Video 0.1.0 #Flathub update is out, build with #gtk4 4.14 and #GStreamer 1.24.1.

This should be the first app targeting the #linux / FDO desktop enabling Wayland video offloading (think zero-copy playback) by default. In many cases (actually more than I expected) this can improve battery lifetime - and on low-end devices even playback performance - significantly.

https://flathub.org/apps/org.sigxcpu.Livi

rmader, 2 months ago to GNOME

For those who like me find themselves often listening radio on youtube during work - lofi stuff in my case - I can really recommend giving #gnome #shortwave a try. If you search for a genre, chances are high that you get like 5-10 stations to choose from. And using a dedicated radio app has a bunch of benefits in different domains.

rmader, 2 months ago to random

Just found out that on #GitLab one can add a + to an issue or MR link, making the preview show the whole title. I.e. instead of "#1234" you get "Some thing is broken (#1234)" - if you write "#1234+"

So if you don't know, now you know 🤷

rmader, 3 months ago to linuxphones

For those of you interested in our recent video offloading / zero-copy playback work: I quickly put together some #livi #flatpak s to make it easy to test stuff already. Compositor offloading should work on all semi-recent Intel/AMD and a variety of ARM64 devices.

If you trust the sandbox you can get them here:
https://cloud.silentundo.org/s/r8733siTjP4yRJp

I expect quite a few people hitting driver bugs, so please help tracking those down :)

#LinuxMobile #gtk #GStreamer #Wayland #GNOME

A picture of a PinePhone Pro easily and smoothly playing a 4k@60fps VP9 video.

rmader, 3 months ago to GNOME

My #gnomeshell Mutter MR to support scaling and cropping via KMS landed in time for #gnome46

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/merge_requests/3177

I'm really happy about this one because it should improve things for multiple use-cases:

1. It allows full hardware offloading of fullscreen video playback for cases when the video dimensions don't perfectly match the screen, i.e. up- or downscaling. There are not many clients supporting this yet - but hopefully we'll see more soon, especially #gtk ones.

Short 🧵

#gnome

rmader, 3 months ago to GNOME

My #FOSDEM presentation about #Wayland video offloading is online. If you are interested, you can watch it here: https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-3557-the-state-of-video-offloading-on-the-linux-desktop/

I'm happy about feedback, both on the technical side as well as how I can improve doing presentations :)

#FOSDEM2024 #GNOME #gtk #Collabora #GStreamer #sway #kde #Chromium #mpv

rmader, 3 months ago to random

My #fosdem talk about more efficient video playback on the desktop will start in about an hour - you can follow it at https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-3557-the-state-of-video-offloading-on-the-linux-desktop/

rmader, 4 months ago to random

My MR for the #gtk4 demo video player finally landed \o/

That means you if you build #gtk4 main on top of #GStreamer main, you can now run gtk4-demo --run=video_player and get zero-copy video playback - at least when using HW with VA-API support, i.e. Intel/AMD for now, and a #Wayland compositor with YUV format support (most importantly NV12).

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/merge_requests/6618

rmader, 4 months ago to random

After some more debugging, here are two videos proving that #gtk4 / #GStreamer video playback with fullscreen GL/VK overlay works on a #RaspberryPi4 and #PinebookPro / #rk3399 on #weston / #Wayland, each maxing out their video decoders with 1080p@60 and 4k@60 respectively.

The message here is: no matter what hardware - if you want to make a video/camera app that needs to be highly efficient, you can do it with a proper, yet still lightweight toolkit now. No need for a custom kms/drm backend.

The GTK4 demo video player on a Raspberry 4, playing BBB. The camera moves over to another screen with Weston debug output, showing that the compositor uses hardware planes, which is needed for optimal playback performance.
The GTK4 demo video player on a Pinebook Pro (using a RK3399 SoC), playing BBB. The camera moves over to another screen with Weston debug output, showing that the compositor uses hardware planes, which is needed for optimal playback performance.

rmader, 4 months ago to GNOME

Got the last bug fixed to make #gtk4 play video with overlay in full zero-copy / hardware plane only mode \o/

This allows highly efficient playback with e.g. subtitles and other overlays, only using the GPU when GTK needs to repaint parts of the main window / the overlay.

I'll talk more about this at my presentation at #fosdem2024, see https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-3557-the-state-of-video-offloading-on-the-linux-desktop/

#fosdem #gnome #GStreamer

The video shows a weston desktop. The gtk4 video player demo is launched, a video started and put into fullscreen. The camera moves to a second screen where weston debug output is printed, showing that weston indeed uses a cursor, overlay and primary plane (and no rendering / compositing) to display the video and overlay (and thecursor).

rmader, 4 months ago to GNOME

I'll also be at #fosdem and do a short talk about #Wayland video offloading related stuff I've been posting about, featuring #gtk4, #gstreamer, #Chromium #gnomeshell and #weston

https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-3557-the-state-of-video-offloading-on-the-linux-desktop/

See you there!

#Collabora #fosdem2024 #gnome #gnomeonrails

rmader, 6 months ago to GNOME

Regarding the future of video playback in #gnome I'd like to add some more context around current developments in #gnomeshell, #gtk4 and #Wayland in a short 🧵

TL;DR: by making use of more modern hardware features we're finally in the position to catch up to other platforms with regards to energy efficiency. So let's do it!

rmader, 6 months ago to GNOME

For #GNOME app folks: IMHO we need to think about what to do with Totem / Gnome Videos. It has not yet been ported to #gtk4, which is increasingly becoming an issue.

Apart from not fitting nicely UI wise, it prevents us from using the newly introduced #wayland hardware offloading (zero-copy playback) and, crucially, from (properly) supporting HDR content going forward.

I.e. we either need a port - or should consider making an alternative a core app to focus on.

Short 🧵

rmader, 6 months ago to linux

Just uploaded some WIP patches which close the missing gap to get hardware video decoding to work with the #Linux (not #ChromeOS) #Chromium #Wayland backend. Both #vaapi (only Intel) and #v4l2 (only stateless).

For interested parties: https://partnerissuetracker.corp.google.com/issues/311459822

So far consisting of:
https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/5040560
https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/5038699
https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/5038617
https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/5038702

rmader, 6 months ago to firefox

#Firefox enables #Wayland by default \o/

Let's hope it sticks 🤞

https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D189367

rmader, 6 months ago to random

The #GTK4 demo video player in full pass-through mode. We're getting there!

#Wayland

rmader, 6 months ago to linuxphones

For #LinuxMobile and Linux #embedded folks I'd like to point out this post by @hergertme :

https://fosstodon.org/@hergertme/111331619547963573

These patches should help #GTK4 performance on drivers/devices using the GLES3 backend - besides #Asahi notably #panfrost and #v3d, maybe also some #freedreno ones (those where the hardware doesn't support GL 3.2).

If your distro targets such devices and doesn't ship GTK 4.12.x, it might be worth backporting those.

Not an expert here, but I think it's mainly the use of VAOs.