The project's consumer-side goal landed: a real VAAPI consumer
(ffmpeg with -hwaccel vaapi) drives our libva backend → V4L2
driver → daemon → byte-exact NV12 output back to ffmpeg.
ffmpeg -hwaccel vaapi -hwaccel_device /dev/dri/renderD128 \
-hwaccel_output_format nv12 -i vp9_small.ivf \
-f rawvideo -y /tmp/vp9_via_libva.nv12
cmp /tmp/vp9_via_libva.nv12 /tmp/vp9_ref_for_libva.nv12 → match
18432-byte NV12 byte-for-byte identical to plain ffmpeg
-pix_fmt nv12 software decode. The project_consumer_target
memory's deliverable shape — "V4L2 stateless node consumed by
a real VAAPI client" — is achieved.
Two related kernel changes:
1. v4l2_ctrl_handler_setup(&ctx->hdl) after registration —
matches rkvdec/cedrus/hantro. Brings each registered
compound control out of "uninitialised" state via
std_init_compound defaults.
2. Per-request control completion in the decode path —
the real fix for "Timeout when waiting for media request".
vb2-core's vb2_buffer_done unbinds the BUFFER's req_obj
on normal decode completion, but the per-request CONTROL
object stays bound. buf_request_complete fires only from
queue-cancel paths (vb2-core line 2284), NOT from normal
buf_done. The driver must call
v4l2_ctrl_request_complete(req, hdl) explicitly from the
completion path.
struct daedalus_inflight gained a `struct media_request
*req` field, captured from src_buf->vb2_buf.req_obj.req
in device_run. daedalus_complete_resp_frame then calls
v4l2_ctrl_request_complete before
v4l2_m2m_buf_done_and_job_finish — triggers
MEDIA_REQUEST_STATE_COMPLETE and wakes the request fd
poll.
For non-request flows (test_m2m_stream direct QBUF)
inf->req is NULL; the conditional skips the call.
Both consumer styles work concurrently.
Diagnostic clarification (was Phase 8.13a):
strace traced three S_EXT_CTRLS calls per frame:
1. H264_PROFILE + H264_LEVEL → EINVAL (we don't register)
2. HEVC_PROFILE + HEVC_LEVEL → EINVAL (we don't register)
3. VP9_FRAME + VP9_COMPRESSED_HDR → SUCCESS
The first two are harmless: libva probes whether we support
H264/HEVC integer profile/level controls during config
negotiation; we don't (we expose them as stateless), so EINVAL
just falls through. The actual VP9 stateless controls (#3)
succeeded all along — the libva-side "Unable to set control(s)"
log was misleading us into thinking the control path was the
bug.
Verification on hertz (Pi 5, 6.12.75+rpt-rpi-2712):
daemon log:
REQ_DECODE cookie=1 codec=1 bitstream=1566 bytes capture=128x96 1 planes
decoder: opened vp9 context
decoder: OK 128x96 fmt=0 (yuv420p) fnv1a=0x1eb34bfe ...
ffmpeg side:
no Timeout, no Decoding error
/tmp/vp9_via_libva.nv12: 18432 bytes
cmp vs reference: byte-for-byte identical.
Roadmap update:
- 8.10/8.11, 8.12, 8.13 marked closed with closure docs.
- 8.14 = multi-frame VP9 via libva, AV1 + H.264, mpv/Firefox
higher-level consumers.
Per correctness-before-speed:
- strace + kernel-source-reading found the actual root cause
rather than guessing.
- Conditional v4l2_ctrl_request_complete preserves the existing
test_m2m_stream non-request path — both consumer styles work
concurrently without per-flow branching elsewhere.
- Byte-exact pixel comparison, not "frame size matches."
Phase 8.14 next: multi-frame stream + multi-codec via libva +
mpv/Firefox.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
7.4 KiB
daedalus-v4l2 — roadmap
Sub-phases
Phase 8.1 — kernel module skeleton
Out-of-tree kernel module that:
- Registers
/dev/videoNNwithVFL_TYPE_VIDEO+ a no-op V4L2 stateless dispatch table. - Accepts open/close, S_FMT, REQBUFS ioctls without doing anything (yet).
- Builds against
/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build.
Deliverable: modprobe daedalus_v4l2 works, v4l2-ctl --list-devices
shows the new device.
Phase 8.2 — kernel ↔ daemon chardev bridge
- Kernel module creates
/dev/daedalus-v4l2chardev. - Defines a simple req/resp protocol in
include/daedalus_v4l2_proto.h. - Daemon connects, exchanges echo requests.
Deliverable: ping-pong test passes.
Phase 8.3 — daemon FFmpeg dlopen + parse
- Daemon links
libdaedalus_core.afrom sibling. - Daemon dlopens FFmpeg.
- Test program: feed a VP9 IVF file to FFmpeg parsers, extract block-level metadata, validate against expected.
Deliverable: daemon can parse a VP9 frame and walk the block-level info.
Phase 8.4 — daemon ↔ kernel decode round-trip (closed 2026-05-18)
Shipped as a debugfs-triggered chardev round-trip rather than the original V4L2-ioctl plan (which moved to Phase 8.5).
- REQ_DECODE / RESP_FRAME wire protocol
- Daemon decodes VP9 via FFmpeg dlopen, returns FNV-1a digest
- Verified content-dependent + deterministic; structured error handling for bad bitstreams
See docs/phase_8_4_closure.md.
Phase 8.5 — full V4L2 m2m driver (closed 2026-05-18)
Real V4L2 m2m driver — userspace clients drive
S_FMT/REQBUFS/QBUF/DQBUF the standard way. Bitstream
flows kernel→daemon as inline REQ_DECODE payload; decoded NV12
pixels flow daemon→kernel as inline RESP_FRAME payload. Works
end-to-end for small frames (≤ ~64 KiB NV12).
Deliverable hit: kernel m2m driver passes most v4l2-compliance
checks; tools/test_m2m_decode produces a NV12 frame that's
byte-for-byte identical to ffmpeg -pix_fmt nv12 reference.
See docs/phase_8_5_closure.md.
Phase 8.6 — dmabuf + AV1 + H.264 + stateless controls (closed 2026-05-18)
- CAPTURE (and OUTPUT) on
vb2_dma_contig_memops. - New
DAEDALUS_IOC_GET_DMABUFchardev ioctl — daemon mmaps the in-flight CAPTURE buffer, decodes pixels in place, sends RESP_FRAME metadata-only. - 64 KiB frame-size cap removed. 1080p VP9 + 128×96 AV1
- 128×96 H.264 all byte-exact against reference FFmpeg decode.
- V4L2 stateless controls registered for VP9 / AV1 / H.264 (11 controls visible to userspace).
- Colorspace round-trip fix (TRY_FMT preserve, S_FMT OUTPUT→CAPTURE propagation).
- Cookie unified across V4L2 + debugfs paths.
- v4l2-compliance: 47/48 (only DECODER_CMD remains, needs media controller — moved to 8.7).
See docs/phase_8_6_closure.md.
Phase 8.7 — media controller + multi-frame streaming (closed 2026-05-18)
- Media controller bound via
v4l2_m2m_register_media_controller+media_device_register;/dev/mediaNpublished. tools/test_m2m_streamparses IVF and pushes frames sequentially through a 4-deep buffer ring; daemon AVCodecContext preserves reference frames across calls.- 30-frame VP9 320×240 stream byte-exact (3.46 MB across 1 keyframe + 29 P-frames).
- 10-frame VP9 1080p stream byte-exact (31 MB across 10 frames at full HD).
- v4l2-compliance: 49/49 passing (was 47/48 in 8.6; media controller added a 49th test and closed DECODER_CMD).
See docs/phase_8_7_closure.md.
Phase 8.8 — throughput baseline + multi-codec streams + HDR (closed 2026-05-18)
- Per-frame µs timing in test_m2m_stream; multi-codec
baseline:
- VP9 1080p: 83.1 fps
- AV1 1080p: 65.0 fps
- H.264 1080p: 88.3 fps All byte-exact vs ffmpeg reference; all 2-3× over the 30fps-floor-is-fine criterion.
- QPU dispatch substitution explicitly not needed — measurement shows the FFmpeg software path already clears the target on Pi 5's Cortex-A76. Substitution moves to the optimisation roadmap.
- Annex-B H.264 access-unit splitter in the test harness (NALs grouped by VCL boundary).
- HDR / 10-bit: V4L2_PIX_FMT_P010 added as CAPTURE format; daemon pack_p010_to_plane handles YUV420P10LE → P010 with MSB-aligned 10-bit data. 10-bit 1080p byte-exact at 48.8 fps.
See docs/phase_8_8_closure.md.
Phase 8.9 — long-form stress + multi-codec HDR + libva scoping (closed 2026-05-18)
- libva-v4l2-request investigation: upstream supports only
MPEG-2 / H.264 / HEVC (no VP9 or AV1) and expects the
older
V4L2_PIX_FMT_H264_SLICE_RAWfourcc. Real integration requires adding VP9 + AV1 support to the library itself — pushed to Phase 8.10. - Long-form stress: 1800-frame VP9 1080p (60s @ 30fps), 120.9 fps sustained, p99 17.3 ms/frame, no errors, no leaks, daemon alive after 3620 cookies across two runs.
- HDR multi-codec byte-exact: VP9-10bit (48.8 fps, from 8.8), AV1-10bit (17.1 fps), H.264-10bit (26.9 fps). 10-bit is intrinsically more expensive — AV1 falls short of 30fps but acceptable for the user-facing goal (mostly SDR YouTube).
See docs/phase_8_9_closure.md.
Phase 8.10 + 8.11 — libva consumer integration scaffold (closed 2026-05-18)
- Forked bootlin/libva-v4l2-request to marfrit/libva-v4l2- request-fourier (gitea); discovered the existing fourier fork already had VP9/AV1/HEVC support on Rockchip.
- Added daedalus_v4l2 to known_decoder_drivers + meson build option.
- Added V4L2_PIX_FMT_NV12 single-plane + request API media ops + stateless control registration to our kernel.
- vainfo enumerates 7 VAProfile entries via our driver.
See docs/phase_8_10_11_closure.md.
Phase 8.12 — first VP9 frame decoded via libva (closed 2026-05-18)
- vb2_queue supports_requests; vb2_ops buf_out_validate + buf_request_complete; v4l2_ctrl_new_custom for stateless ctrl registration.
- Daemon decoded byte-exact VP9 keyframe via the full libva path (FNV-1a 0x1eb34bfe matches standalone).
- ffmpeg still timed out waiting for media_request completion (request bind state).
See docs/phase_8_12_closure.md.
Phase 8.13 — byte-exact end-to-end via libva (closed 2026-05-18)
- Traced the misleading "Unable to set control(s): Invalid argument" — actually libva probing H264/HEVC PROFILE/LEVEL we don't expose (harmless); the real VP9 stateless control SET succeeds.
- Diagnosed the "Timeout when waiting for media request" root cause: per-request control object stays bound because vb2's normal buf_done path doesn't fire buf_request_complete (only queue-cancel does).
- Fix: capture media_request from src_buf in inflight entry, call v4l2_ctrl_request_complete from the completion path before buf_done_and_job_finish.
- Byte-exact end-to-end: ffmpeg -hwaccel vaapi → libva-v4l2-request-fourier → /dev/video0 → daedalus_v4l2 → daemon → 18432-byte NV12 byte-for-byte identical to ffmpeg software reference.
- Project consumer target hit: V4L2 stateless node consumed by a real VAAPI client.
See docs/phase_8_13_closure.md.
Phase 8.14 — multi-frame + AV1/H.264 + higher-level consumers
- Multi-frame VP9 stream via libva (vp9_60s.ivf from 8.9 stress test) — P-frame references across requests.
- AV1 + H.264 single-frame via libva.
- mpv --hwdec=vaapi end-to-end.
- Firefox / WebRTC if motivated.
Optimisation work (QPU dispatch, 4K, HDR-in-libva) ships when there's a concrete user-facing need.
Effort estimate
Each phase: ~1 week of focused work (~40 hours). Total: 7 weeks for v1.
Could be split across multiple sessions / contributors.