[Bug]: B580 / Battlemage: VAAPI initialization crashes with SIGBUS in iHD_drv_video.so on DRM render node

[Thecoder32]

Which component impacted?

Decode, Not sure

Is it regression? Good in old configuration?

None

What happened?

AI Disclaimer - I'm not a Dev or well versed in Dev work apologies ahead of time

Summary

VAAPI initialization crashes with Bus error (core dumped) on Intel Battlemage G21 / Arc B580 when using the Intel iHD driver on the DRM render node.

This reproduces consistently with both:

vainfo --display drm --device /dev/dri/renderD128

ffmpeg -hide_banner -init_hw_device vaapi=va:/dev/dri/renderD128 -hwaccel vaapi -hwaccel_device va -f lavfi -i testsrc2=size=128x128:rate=1 -frames:v 1 -f null -

What happens

libva successfully:

• selects the DRM display path
• opens /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
• finds __vaDriverInit_1_22 or __vaDriverInit_1_23 depending on userspace stack version

The process then immediately terminates with:

Bus error (core dumped)

Expected result

VAAPI should initialize successfully and return supported profiles / entrypoints, or FFmpeg should complete VAAPI device initialization without crashing.

What's the usage scenario when you are seeing the problem?

Others

What impacted?

VAAPI is unusable on this system for Intel hardware acceleration.

Impacted examples:

• vainfo cannot enumerate capabilities
• ffmpeg cannot initialize a VAAPI device
• any application relying on VAAPI initialization through iHD is likely affected

This blocks validation and use of hardware accelerated media decode and encode workflows on this B580 system.

Debug Information

Hardware

• GPU: Intel Battlemage G21 / Arc B580
• Kernel driver in use: xe

Reproduction steps

1. Set Intel VA driver:

export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=iHD

2. Run:

vainfo --display drm --device /dev/dri/renderD128

3. Also reproduces with:

ffmpeg -hide_banner -init_hw_device vaapi=va:/dev/dri/renderD128 -hwaccel vaapi -hwaccel_device va -f lavfi -i testsrc2=size=128x128:rate=1 -frames:v 1 -f null -

Example output from vainfo

Trying display: drm
libva info: VA-API version 1.24.0
libva info: User environment variable requested driver 'iHD'
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_22
Bus error (core dumped)

Example output from ffmpeg

Bus error (core dumped)

Debugging already performed

I ruled out the following local causes:

• incorrect LIBVA_DRIVERS_PATH / LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME
• Wayland specific display path issues
• stale /usr/local Intel media libraries
• bad direct dependency resolution for libigdgmm

I had previously found stale locally installed Intel libraries under /usr/local, including:

• libigdgmm.so.12
• libigfxcmrt.so

These were moved out of the runtime path and ldconfig was re-run. After cleanup, ldd /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/iHD_drv_video.so resolved libigdgmm.so.12 from the packaged system path rather than /usr/local. The crash still reproduced afterward.

Userspace stacks tested

Newer stack

• intel-media-va-driver-non-free 26.1.4
• libva 2.23.0
• libigdgmm12 22.9.0

Behavior:

• vainfo loads iHD
• finds __vaDriverInit_1_23
• crashes with SIGBUS / Bus error

Older stack

• intel-media-va-driver-non-free 25.2.3
• libva 2.22.0
• libigdgmm12 22.8.1

Behavior:

• vainfo loads iHD
• finds __vaDriverInit_1_22
• crashes with SIGBUS / Bus error

So the problem reproduces across both newer and older userspace combinations.

GDB backtrace summary

The crash occurs inside iHD_drv_video.so during driver initialization called from vaInitialize().

Relevant frames:

#11 __vaDriverInit_1_23() from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
#12 va_openDriver() at ../va/va.c:478
#13 va_new_opendriver() at ../va/va.c:714
#14 vaInitialize() at ../va/va.c:743

With the older stack the symbol was __vaDriverInit_1_22, but the failure mode was the same.

The stopping point in GDB was:

__memset_avx2_unaligned_erms

which suggests the driver may be passing an invalid pointer or size during initialization.

Additional notes

This reproduces with direct DRM render node access and is not limited to vainfo, since ffmpeg VAAPI device initialization also crashes.

What’s the usage scenario when you are seeing the problem?
Any workload that initializes VAAPI on Intel Battlemage B580 using the iHD driver. Reproduces with both vainfo and ffmpeg on the DRM render node before actual decode or encode work begins.

Do you want to contribute a patch to fix the issue?

No.

[Thecoder32]

Note This is on Ubuntu 25.10 with 6.19.10 kernel so it would work correctly
if also needed my cpu is a threadripper 2950x on an asus Prime x399-A motherboard
I would offer to help but I have no knowlege in this matter
my email is aidan@swwis.net if you need screenshots

[simplexforce]

Hi, do you have any updates on this issue? I'm running into what seems to be the same problem on NixOS:
NixOS/nixpkgs#506234

I tried building the latest tag of intel-media-driver (26.1.6) myself, and also updated both libva and libva-utils to version 2.23.0, but I still get the following result:

$ vainfo

Trying display: wayland
libva info: VA-API version 1.23.0
libva info: User environment variable requested driver 'iHD'
libva info: Trying to open /run/opengl-driver/lib/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_23
Bus error                  (core dumped) vainfo

I rarely work with drivers and honestly have no idea how to further debug or try to fix this issue.

[nyanmisaka]

#1990 This patch appears to be helpful for the small BAR system.

[simplexforce]

#1990 This patch appears to be helpful for the small BAR system.

Yes, I tested it on my B580, and it works.

[nyanmisaka]

#1990 This patch appears to be helpful for the small BAR system.

Yes, I tested it on my B580, and it works.

@simplexforce That's good news for BMG+. Could you try this command with ffmpeg?
This ensures that not only the HW decoder works, but also the VPP and HW encoder.

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Hardware/VAAPI#Transcode

Transcode to 10-bit H.265 at 15Mbps VBR (the input can be 10-bit, but need not be):

ffmpeg -hwaccel vaapi -hwaccel_device /dev/dri/renderD128 -hwaccel_output_format vaapi -i input.mp4 -vf 'scale_vaapi=format=p010' -c:v hevc_vaapi -profile 2 -b:v 15M output.mp4

[simplexforce]

@nyanmisaka

I used the following command (as suggested by an LLM) to generate an 8-bit test video:

ffmpeg -f lavfi -i testsrc=duration=10:size=1920x1080:rate=30 \
       -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p input.mp4

This produced input.mp4. Then I ran the command you mentioned:

ffmpeg -hwaccel vaapi -hwaccel_device /dev/dri/renderD128 -hwaccel_output_format vaapi \
       -i input.mp4 -vf 'scale_vaapi=format=p010' -c:v hevc_vaapi -profile 2 -b:v 15M output.mp4

The output I got:

ffmpeg version 8.0.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2025 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 15.2.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --disable-static --prefix=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ffmpeg-8.0.1 --target_os=linux --arch=x86_64 --pkg-config=pkg-config --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-nonfree --disable-static --enable-shared --enable-pic --disable-thumb --disable-small --enable-runtime-cpudetect --disable-gray --enable-swscale-alpha --enable-hardcoded-tables --enable-safe-bitstream-reader --enable-pthreads --disable-w32threads --disable-os2threads --enable-network --enable-pixelutils --datadir=/nix/store/3x0j2afa0rjdcr6i2sda0230hgh228pm-ffmpeg-8.0.1-data/share/ffmpeg --enable-ffmpeg --enable-ffplay --enable-ffprobe --bindir=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ffmpeg-8.0.1-bin/bin --enable-avcodec --enable-avdevice --enable-avfilter --enable-avformat --enable-avutil --enable-swresample --enable-swscale --libdir=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ffmpeg-8.0.1-lib/lib --incdir=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ffmpeg-8.0.1-dev/include --enable-doc --enable-htmlpages --enable-manpages --mandir=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ffmpeg-8.0.1-man/share/man --enable-podpages --enable-txtpages --docdir=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ffmpeg-8.0.1-doc/share/doc/ffmpeg --enable-alsa --enable-amf --enable-libaom --disable-libaribb24 --disable-libaribcaption --enable-libass --disable-avisynth --enable-libbluray --disable-libbs2b --enable-bzlib --disable-libcaca --disable-libcdio --disable-libcelt --disable-chromaprint --disable-libcodec2 --disable-cuda --enable-cuda-llvm --disable-cuda-nvcc --enable-cuvid --enable-libdav1d --disable-libdavs2 --disable-libdc1394 --enable-libdrm --disable-libdvdnav --disable-libdvdread --disable-libfdk-aac --enable-ffnvcodec --disable-libflite --enable-fontconfig --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --disable-frei0r --enable-libfribidi --disable-libgme --enable-gmp --enable-gnutls --disable-libgsm --enable-libharfbuzz --enable-iconv --disable-libilbc --disable-libjack --disable-libjxl --disable-libkvazaar --disable-ladspa --disable-liblc3 --disable-liblcevc-dec --disable-lcms2 --enable-lzma --disable-metal --disable-libmfx --disable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --disable-libmysofa --disable-libnpp --enable-nvdec --enable-nvenc --disable-openal --enable-liboapv --enable-opencl --disable-libopencore-amrnb --disable-libopencore-amrwb --disable-opengl --disable-libopenh264 --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --disable-libplacebo --enable-libpulse --disable-libqrencode --disable-libquirc --disable-librav1e --enable-librist --disable-librtmp --disable-librubberband --disable-libsmbclient --enable-sdl2 --disable-libshaderc --disable-libshine --disable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libsrt --enable-libssh --disable-librsvg --enable-libsvtav1 --disable-libtensorflow --enable-libtheora --disable-libtwolame --disable-libuavs3d --enable-libv4l2 --enable-v4l2-m2m --enable-vaapi --enable-vdpau --disable-libvpl --enable-libvidstab --disable-libvmaf --disable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-vulkan --disable-libvvenc --enable-libwebp --disable-whisper --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --disable-libxavs --disable-libxavs2 --disable-libxcb --disable-libxcb-shape --disable-libxcb-shm --disable-libxcb-xfixes --disable-libxevd --disable-libxeve --disable-xlib --enable-libxml2 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzimg --enable-zlib --disable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --disable-debug --enable-optimizations --disable-extra-warnings --disable-stripping
  libavutil      60.  8.100 / 60.  8.100
  libavcodec     62. 11.100 / 62. 11.100
  libavformat    62.  3.100 / 62.  3.100
  libavdevice    62.  1.100 / 62.  1.100
  libavfilter    11.  4.100 / 11.  4.100
  libswscale      9.  1.100 /  9.  1.100
  libswresample   6.  1.100 /  6.  1.100
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'input.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf62.3.100
  Duration: 00:00:10.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 198 kb/s
  Stream #0:0[0x1](und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(progressive), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 194 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 15360 tbn (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
      vendor_id       : [0][0][0][0]
      encoder         : Lavc62.11.100 libx264
Please use -profile:a or -profile:v, -profile is ambiguous
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 (native) -> hevc (hevc_vaapi))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
Output #0, mp4, to 'output.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf62.3.100
  Stream #0:0(und): Video: hevc (Main 10) (hev1 / 0x31766568), vaapi(tv, progressive), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 15000 kb/s, 30 fps, 15360 tbn (default)
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc62.11.100 hevc_vaapi
      handler_name    : VideoHandler
      vendor_id       : [0][0][0][0]
[out#0/mp4 @ 0x55cffc01f440] video:2400KiB audio:0KiB subtitle:0KiB other streams:0KiB global headers:0KiB muxing overhead: 0.155654%
frame=  300 fps=0.0 q=-0.0 Lsize=    2404KiB time=00:00:09.96 bitrate=1975.5kbits/s speed=15.8x elapsed=0:00:00.63

After that, I got output.mp4 in the directory. Everything seems fine.

[nyanmisaka]

@XinfengZhang Can some from intel help review the fix? It is helpful for using BMG+ on older platforms.