marfrit
8c1d9960c4
libva-v4l2-request-fourier (and any V4L2-stateless-API consumer)
passes H.264 SPS/PPS as separate V4L2_CID_STATELESS_H264_{SPS,PPS}
controls; only the slice NAL goes into the OUTPUT buffer. This is
correct per the V4L2 stateless contract. But libavcodec — which
the daedalus daemon uses for actual decode (Option γ) — wants a
self-contained AnnexB stream including SPS+PPS before any slice.
Result on higgs: "non-existing PPS 0 referenced" + decode_slice_
header errors on every H.264 frame, even after LIBVA-1 and -2
routing correctly delivered the request to the daemon.
Fix splits across kernel + daemon, keeping the kernel module as a
thin transport and putting the actual NAL encoding in userspace:
include/daedalus_v4l2_proto.h:
Add struct daedalus_h264_meta (the four v4l2_ctrl_h264_*
structs the kernel collects) and DAEDALUS_REQ_FLAG_H264_META
(set in req.flags when the meta block is present between the
daedalus_req_decode prefix and the slice bitstream).
kernel/daedalus_v4l2_main.c:
Add daedalus_collect_h264_meta() — reads the H.264 ctrl values
from the bound media_request via v4l2_ctrl_find +
ctrl->p_cur.p_h264_*. device_run() calls it on H.264 codec_id,
copies the structs into the REQ_DECODE payload between the
prefix and bitstream, and sets the flag. Payload size is
bounds-checked against DAEDALUS_PROTO_MAX_PAYLOAD so an over-
sized slice + meta fails loud instead of truncating.
daemon/src/bitstream_writer.{c,h}:
New module — MSB-first bit packer with H.264 Exp-Golomb ue(v)
and se(v) coding + rbsp_trailing_bits alignment. Sticky
overflow flag so callers can verify the output buffer wasn't
truncated.
daemon/src/h264_nal_synth.{c,h}:
New module — turns v4l2_ctrl_h264_sps / v4l2_ctrl_h264_pps
into AnnexB-framed NAL units per ITU-T H.264 7.3.2.1 / 7.3.2.2.
Emits emulation prevention bytes (0x03 after every 00 00 in the
EBSP) and the 4-byte start code (0x00000001). Coverage matches
what V4L2 stateless surface gives us: VUI parameters and full
scaling matrices are NOT emitted (V4L2 doesn't carry them — the
seq_scaling_matrix_present_flag is set to 0 and libavcodec uses
flat defaults, which matches the de-facto behaviour of most
H.264 streams libva-v4l2-request drives).
daemon/src/decoder.c:
daedalus_decoder_run_request() now takes an optional
h264_meta parameter. For codec_id == H264 with meta != NULL,
synthesises SPS+PPS NAL units, allocates a combined
[SPS][PPS][slice] buffer (+ AV_INPUT_BUFFER_PADDING_SIZE), and
feeds that to avcodec_send_packet instead of the raw slice.
VP9/AV1 path unchanged (frames are self-contained). Cleanup
now goes through a unified `out:` label so the assembled
buffer is always freed on every exit (including the existing
decoder_open_codec / no-frame / receive_frame failure paths).
daemon/src/chardev_client.c:
handle_req_decode() peels off the optional meta block when the
flag is set, passes it through to the decoder, and updates
the payload-length consistency check (now allows for an extra
sizeof(daedalus_h264_meta) when the flag is on).
Build (boltzmann aarch64): clean compile of all daemon sources,
including bitstream_writer + h264_nal_synth + the refactored
decoder.c. Kernel module compile to be verified via DKMS rebuild
on higgs in the marfrit-packages bump that follows.
Test plan: with this commit + a marfrit-packages daedalus pin
bump, higgs's ffmpeg -hwaccel vaapi -i h264_test.mp4 should
produce a successful decode (vs. the previous "non-existing PPS 0
referenced" failure). The daemon log should show:
decoder: opened h264 context
decoder: h264 prepended SPS=NB PPS=MB slice=KB
decoder: OK 320x240 fmt=0 (yuv420p) fnv1a=0x...
VP9 / AV1 behaviour unchanged — they don't carry meta and the
existing per-frame self-describing path still applies.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
daedalus-v4l2
V4L2 stateless decoder for the Raspberry Pi 5 / CM5, backed by the
daedalus-fourier kernel library (VP9 + AV1 CDEF + H.264 video
decode kernels on VideoCore VII compute + ARM NEON).
Status: scaffold (2026-05-18). Architecture locked per daedalus-fourier session memory; implementation not yet begun.
What this is
Sibling repo to daedalus-fourier (the kernel library; cycles 1-9 closed).
A two-piece userspace + kernel-module stack that exposes a V4L2
stateless decoder interface (/dev/videoNN) so that
libva-v4l2-request-fourier → firefox-fourier /
chromium-fourier can drive it the same way they drive existing
hardware-decode pipelines on Pi 5 / RK3588.
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| firefox-fourier / chromium-fourier (existing) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| VA-API |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| libva-v4l2-request-fourier (existing, sibling project) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| V4L2 stateless ioctl uAPI |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| daedalus-v4l2 kernel module (`kernel/`) |
| - registers /dev/videoNN |
| - parses V4L2 stateless ioctls (VP9/AV1/H.264 controls) |
| - forwards bitstream + controls to userspace daemon |
| via chardev or netlink |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| daedalus-v4l2 userspace daemon (`daemon/`) |
| - takes bitstream blobs + per-slice controls |
| - drives FFmpeg parsers via dlopen (Option γ) |
| - dispatches per-block ops via daedalus-fourier |
| public API (daedalus_dispatch_*) |
| - posts decoded frames back to kernel module |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| daedalus-fourier kernel library (sibling project) |
| - exports include/daedalus.h public API |
| - per-kernel CPU NEON + opportunistic V3D QPU dispatch |
| - 9 closed cycles across VP9, AV1 CDEF, H.264 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| V3D 7.1 (Mesa userspace v3dv) + ARM NEON (BCM2712) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Why this architecture (Option B + γ + sibling)
Locked by user 2026-05-18 from 3 options in
daedalus-fourier/docs/phase8_scoping.md:
- Option B over A (userspace v4l2loopback): real
/dev/videoNN, proper DRM PRIME / dmabuf for browser zero-copy. - Option γ: dlopen FFmpeg as parser at runtime. No vendoring, fastest to v1.
- Sibling repo: per
project_consumer_targetconvention, V4L2-side work lives outside daedalus-fourier so the kernel-library has a clean API boundary.
Status
Initial scaffold only. See docs/architecture.md for the
deeper design and docs/roadmap.md for the
sub-phase breakdown.
Repo layout
kernel/— Linux kernel module (V4L2 device registration + ioctl handling + userspace chardev bridge). Out-of-tree.daemon/— userspace decoder daemon (linkslibdaedalus_core.afrom sibling daedalus-fourier; uses dlopen for FFmpeg parser).include/— shared headers between kernel and daemon.docs/— architecture + roadmap.
License
Kernel module: GPLv2 (required for kernel-tree compatibility). Userspace daemon: BSD-2-Clause (matches daedalus-fourier).