Video Playback Broken in Firefox with WebRender Compositor

[GreyXor]

• Sway Version:
  sway version 1.10-dev-ab455bbad (Mar 24 2025, branch 'master')
  wlroots https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/commit/99da6ccc87c2439b19c9298df6b72b29bbab89bb

• Debug Log:
  https://gist.github.com/GreyXor/308004d78951dee327ac8518dc647588

• Configuration File:
  https://gitlab.com/greyxor/dotfiles/-/tree/main/.config/sway?ref_type=heads
  WLR_RENDERER=vulkan

• Description:

Using firefox nightly

When enabling WebRender compositor in Firefox by setting:

gfx.webrender.compositor.force-enabled = true

video playback stops working entirely. Disabling the option restores video playback capability..

I first create issue on firefox bugzilla but they seem to be saying it's more of a sway/wlroots problem.
More info here : https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1954292

[Ferdi265]

At least with the GLES2 renderer this does not appear to be an issue on my system (sway 1.10-dev-ab455bbad + wlroots 0.19-dev-99da6ccc8 + #8578). I'll try to reproduce this with the vulkan renderer as well.

[Ferdi265]

Still works with vulkan renderer. Detailed info below, hope this helps narrow it down:

GPU: AMD 780M / amdgpu with vulkan-radeon (not amdvlk)
Sway/wlroots: sway 1.10-dev-ab455bbad + wlroots 0.19-dev-99da6ccc8 + #8578
Firefox about:support:

• Version: 136.0.3
• Compositing: WebRender
• WEBRENDER: default, available
• WEBRENDER_COMPOSITOR: runtime, blocked, Cannot be enabled in release or beta, Blocklisted; failure code FEATURE_FAILURE_DISABLE_RELEASE_OR_BETA
• HARDWARE_VIDEO_DECODING: default, available
• DMABUF: default, available
• DMABUF_SURFACE_EXPORT: env blocked, Blocklisted by gfxInfo, Blocklisted; failure code FEATURE_FAILURE_BROKEN_DRIVER
• H264_HW_DECODE: default, available

[GreyXor]

Thanks @Ferdi265 ,
we have the same GPU, AMD 780M and also vulkan-radeon

Did you force the compositor with gfx.webrender.compositor.force-enabled = true ?
This video appear completely black to me https://download.blender.org/peach/bigbuckbunny_movies/BigBuckBunny_320x180.mp4

Plus, have you seen my log? I have these errors

00:00:20.493 [ERROR] [wlr] [render/vulkan/texture.c:552] Format/Modifier does not support disjoint images
00:00:20.493 [ERROR] [wlr] [types/buffer/client.c:74] Failed to create texture
00:00:20.493 [ERROR] [wlr] [types/wlr_compositor.c:437] Failed to upload buffer

which seems related and not annodine

[Ferdi265]

Did you force the compositor with gfx.webrender.compositor.force-enabled = true ?

It's on by default for me, but I've set the preference as well. Also, I use the normal firefox package from Arch Linux.

This video appear completely black to me https://download.blender.org/peach/bigbuckbunny_movies/BigBuckBunny_320x180.mp4

I tested with the same video.

Plus, have you seen my log? I have these errors

00:00:20.493 [ERROR] [wlr] [render/vulkan/texture.c:552] Format/Modifier does not support disjoint images
00:00:20.493 [ERROR] [wlr] [types/buffer/client.c:74] Failed to create texture
00:00:20.493 [ERROR] [wlr] [types/wlr_compositor.c:437] Failed to upload buffer

which seems related and not annodine

These errors do not appear in my sway log. However, I also have slightly different logs when enabling the verbose firefox DMABUF logging MOZ_LOG="Dmabuf:5": I don't get the lines with DMABufSurfaceYUV::CreateWlBuffer() UID 1 format YUV size [320 x 180]. I get logs related to the same YUV format, but not the logs about explicitly creating a wl_buffer for it via linux-dmabuf-v1.

Of note, for me the "DMABUF surface export" state is "blocked" for some reason in about:support. I'm currently not at my laptop, I'll check the exact value when I get back.

[GreyXor]

ok i'm using firefox nightly. I forget to mention that. can you try ?

[Ferdi265]

ok i'm using firefox nightly. I forget to mention that. can you try ?

That makes a lot of sense; DMABUF surface export seems to be disabled on stable, which is why I'm not seeing the issue. I'll try this again on nightly soon, I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to reproduce

[GreyXor]

Yes, it got merged here :
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/a8bfd2e3eecf
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/6064ee48431c
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/c1d946659c92
https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/5242db4cd8f5

Thanks

[Ferdi265]

Tested this again with firefox nightly. Can reproduce the issue with the vulkan renderer, everything works fine with the GLES2 renderer.

The video initially stays completely black, but by switching tabs while the video is playing you can get it to show still frames of later parts of the video. I also get the same errors in the sway log.

• Version: Mozilla Firefox 138.0a1
• Compositing: WebRender
• WEBRENDER: default, available
• WEBRENDER_COMPOSITOR: user, force_enabled, Force enabled by pref (via gfx.webrender.compositor.force-enabled in about:config)
• WEBRENDER_COMPOSITOR: env blocklisted, Blocklisted by gfxInfo, Blocklisted; failure code FEATURE_FAILURE_WEBRENDER_COMPOSITOR_DISABLED
• HARDWARE_VIDEO_DECODING: default, available
• DMABUF: default, available
• DMABUF_SURFACE_EXPORT: env blocked, Blocklisted by gfxInfo, Blocklisted; failure code FEATURE_FAILURE_BROKEN_DRIVER
• H264_HW_DECODE: default, available

[Ferdi265]

By adding some additional debug prints to the wlroots vulkan renderer, I found the format of the buffer that failed to import:

planes=2, drm_format=3231564e (DRM_FORMAT_NV12), drm_modifier=0000000000000000 (DRM_FORMAT_MOD_LINEAR)

The failure appears to be that Vulkan doesn't think that format/modifier pair supports "disjoint" images. I don't know enough about Vulkan to know what that means or if that is correct, a bug in sway, a bug in firefox, or a bug in the driver.

[Ferdi265]

I don't think sway is really at fault here. Webrender compositor just seems really broken in Firefox nightly. I just tested the same in KDE plasma 6.3.3, and there the whole firefox window just appears as a drop shadow with no content when gfx.webrender.compositor.force-enabled is set:

It does work fine on Gnome 48 though (including working video playback).

[GreyXor]

Also working under weston 14.0.0

[stransky]

Please run Firefox on terminal with MOZ_LOG="Dmabuf:5" env variable and if you see any error please report that at bugzilla.mozilla.org and attach the log there.

So far I don't see any error messages from Sway so from application side it looks like wl_buffer created over dmabuf is imported and used by Sway without any problem.

[mark-herbert42]

I don't think sway is really at fault here. Webrender compositor just seems really broken in Firefox nightly. I just tested the same in KDE plasma 6.3.3, and there the whole firefox window just appears as a drop shadow with no content when gfx.webrender.compositor.force-enabled is set:

Same story with wayfire - just a drop shadow and nothing more.

[mark-herbert42]

Checked with latest build (mercurial clone) - with wayfire shows OK (previously was shadow only) but crash immediately after startin VAAPi play on youtube

RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf VideoFrameSurface: creating surface UID 36
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf Using VA-API DMABufSurface UID 36 FFMPEG ID 0x4
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf Used HW surface UID 16 FFMPEG ID 0x3
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf Surface pool size 5 used copied 3 used ffmpeg 1 (max 0) free ratio -inf
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127634d90]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::UpdateYUVData() UID 36 copy 1
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127633600] DMABufSurfaceYUV::CreateYUVSurface() UID 37 from desc
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127633600]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::UpdateYUVData() UID 37 copy 0
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127633600]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::ImportPRIMESurfaceDescriptor() UID 37 FOURCC 3231564e
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127633600]: plane 0 size 1280 x 720 format 20203852
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127633600]: plane 1 size 640 x 360 format 38385247
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127634d90]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::ImportPRIMESurfaceDescriptor() UID 36 FOURCC 3231564e
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127634d90]: plane 0 size 1280 x 720 format 20203852
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127634d90]: plane 1 size 640 x 360 format 38385247
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127633600]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::CreateTexture() UID 37 plane 0
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127634d90]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::CreateYUVPlaneExport() UID 36 size 1280 x 720 plane 0
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127634d90]: imported size 1280 x 720 format 3231564e planes 2 modifiers 0
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127633600]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::CreateTexture() UID 37 plane 1
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127634d90]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::CreateYUVPlaneExport() UID 36 size 640 x 360 plane 1
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127634d90]: imported size 640 x 360 format 3231564e planes 2 modifiers 100000000000009
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127633600]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::ReleaseTextures() UID 37
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127634d90]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::ReleaseTextures() UID 36
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127633600]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::ReleaseSurface() UID 37
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127633600]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::ReleaseTextures() UID 37
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127633600]: DMABufSurface::ReleaseDMABuf() UID 37
[RDD 35911: MediaPDecoder #1]: D/Dmabuf DMABUFSurfaceImage::DMABUFSurfaceImage (7f51263de100) aSurface 7f5127634d90 UID 36
[RDD 35911: MediaSupervisor #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127634d90]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::Serialize() UID 36
[RDD 35911: MediaSupervisor #1]: D/Dmabuf [7f5127634d90]: DMABufSurfaceYUV::Serialize() UID 36
Crash Annotation GraphicsCriticalError: |[0]CP+[GFX1-]: DMABufSurface::UseDmaBufExportExtension(): MESA_image_dma_buf import/export extensions! (t=33.9335) |[1][GFX1-]: () Wayland protocol error: zwp_linux_buffer_params_v1#362: error 4: sent modifier 72057594037927945 for plane 1, expected modifier 0 like other planes
(t=34.1035) [GFX1-]: () Wayland protocol error: zwp_linux_buffer_params_v1#362: error 4: sent modifier 72057594037927945 for plane 1, expected modifier 0 like other planes

Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Segmentation fault (core dumped)