HOWTO Enable VAAPI in Chromium and Youtube - Kubuntu 20.04

[schnelle]

1. Install the VA-API driver

For Intel graphics cards, you'll need to install the i965-va-driver package (it may already be installed):

sudo apt install i965-va-driver

2. Remove Chromium if it is already installed

3. Add this PPA and install Chromium:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xalt7x/chromium-deb-vaapi

In order to avoid installation of newer snap package on Ubuntu 20.04, you can "pin" this PPA with a command bellow:

[COLOR=#333333][FONT=monospace]cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/pin-xalt7x-chromium-deb-vaapi
Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-xalt7x-chromium-deb-vaapi
Pin-Priority: 1337
EOF[/FONT][/COLOR]

Then:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install chromium-browser

4. To make VAAPI work in Chromium and Youtube, it have to be started with this environment variable: LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=i965

[FONT=monospace]LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=i965 chromium-browser
[/FONT]

To make change permanent, right click on Plasma start menu button - Edit applications, then find Chromium and under Command add LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=i965
so it looks like this

LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=i965 chromium-browser %U

5. Start Chromium, and under Apps - Web store find and install h264ify extension in order to make YouTube stream H.264 videos instead of VP8/VP9 videos.

6. Enable the Hardware-accelerated video option in Chromium

Copy and paste the following in the Chrome URL bar:

chrome://flags/#disable-accelerated-video-decode

or search for the Hardware-accelerated video decode option in

chrome://flags

and enable it, then restart Chromium browser.

7. Find and play some 4k, 2k, or 1080p video in YouTube.

8. Open new separate tab and enter this path link chrome://media-internals/

If VAAPI works you shoud see "MojoVideoDecoder" as decoder:

kVideoDecoderName

"MojoVideoDecoder"

Aaaaand that means that VAAPI works, your CPU will have a rest and your GPU will do all the work!