diff --git a/src/surface.c b/src/surface.c
index abcabe3..3f89b8f 100644
--- a/src/surface.c
+++ b/src/surface.c
@@ -677,9 +677,38 @@ VAStatus RequestExportSurfaceHandle(VADriverContextP context,
 		for (i = 0; i < planes_count; i++)
 			size += surface_object->destination_sizes[i];
 
+	/*
+	 * Iteration 2 Fix 2: choose drm_format_modifier conditionally on
+	 * pitch alignment. Mesa's WSI / Panfrost compositor path rejects
+	 * DRM_FORMAT_MOD_NONE (= LINEAR explicit) buffers whose pitch isn't
+	 * GPU-aligned (typically 64+ bytes for Mali). For 1920-wide content
+	 * the pitch is 1920 (64-aligned, fine); for 864-wide content the
+	 * pitch is 864 (only 16-aligned), Mesa rejects with "WSI pitch not
+	 * properly aligned" and Firefox falls back to SW.
+	 *
+	 * Setting DRM_FORMAT_MOD_INVALID tells the importer "modifier
+	 * unknown, treat as implicit / texture-only" — Firefox's
+	 * DMABufSurface.cpp:1920 explicitly omits modifier attribs from
+	 * eglCreateImage when the value is MOD_INVALID, bypassing Mesa's
+	 * scanout-alignment check. The buffer is then texture-imported
+	 * (small perf cost) instead of WSI scanout-imported, which is
+	 * the correct behavior for a buffer that doesn't meet scanout
+	 * alignment requirements.
+	 *
+	 * We branch on pitch alignment to preserve LINEAR semantics for
+	 * already-aligned content (avoids unnecessary perf cost on the
+	 * common 1920-wide case).
+	 *
+	 * Sonnet Phase 5 review (iter2 question 4) endorsed this
+	 * conditional approach over a universal MOD_INVALID change.
+	 */
 	for (i = 0; i < export_fds_count; i++) {
-		surface_descriptor->objects[i].drm_format_modifier =
-			video_format->drm_modifier;
+		uint64_t modifier = video_format->drm_modifier;
+		unsigned int bytesperline =
+			surface_object->destination_bytesperlines[0];
+		if (bytesperline & 63) /* not 64-byte aligned */
+			modifier = DRM_FORMAT_MOD_INVALID;
+		surface_descriptor->objects[i].drm_format_modifier = modifier;
 		surface_descriptor->objects[i].fd = export_fds[i];
 		surface_descriptor->objects[i].size = export_fds_count == 1 ?
 						      size :