Package: bugs.debian.org Severity: important X-Debbugs-Cc: some...@pm.me Dear Maintainer,
This is my first bug report, so apologies if I'm going about this wrong. I had some help compiling this data. Recently updated Debian Sid exhibits hardware acceleration issues that cause system lockups. The problem was first observed when playing video in VLC (which uses VA-API with the Intel iHD driver), where video playback freezes while audio continues. Further tests revealed that even when not actively playing video, the system under GNOME/Wayland would occasionally lock up (sometimes recoverable by switching to a virtual terminal and back, or closing laptop lid; however could not recover from issue in VLC or, I think, Totem), whereas under X11 (using Window Maker) the system remains stable unless video is played (in VLC). I tested video playback using VLC and mpv. VLC consistently caused a system freeze when hardware acceleration was enabled (defaulting to the iHD driver), while mpv played videos without issue. Disabling hardware acceleration in VLC (using --avcodec-hw=none) prevented the freeze. I also attempted to force VLC to use the i965 driver by setting the environment variable (export LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME=i965); although VLC remained stable in that case, vainfo failed to initialize the i965 driver. Maybe these tests indicate that the issue is tied to the default Intel iHD driver used for VA-API. I also noticed that using Xorg/Window Maker would avoid any freezing I would sometimes experience in Gnome/Wayland (outside of playing video). Playing a video with VLC in Window Maker would still cause the system lock up (requiring a hard reset). Regards, someodd
