Firefox Hardware Acceleration Nvidia

Help
1

Hi, NixOS newbie here, I’m trying to set up HW acceleration using nvidia-vaapi-driver but I’m having some issues.

Here are my configs:
configuration.nix

 { config, pkgs, ... }:

{
  imports =
    [ # Include the results of the hardware scan.
      ./hardware-configuration.nix
      ./nvidia.nix
    ];
  
  # Ntfs support
  boot.supportedFilesystems = [ "ntfs" ];

  # Install firefox.
  programs.firefox.enable = true;

  # Allow unfree packages
  nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;

  # Flatpaks
  services.flatpak.enable = true;

  # List packages installed in system profile. To search, run:
  # $ nix search wget
  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [

    vim # Do not forget to add an editor to edit configuration.nix! The Nano editor is also installed by default.
    ffmpeg
    fastfetch
    ntfs3g
    flatpak
    nvidia-vaapi-driver
    vaapiVdpau
    libvdpau-va-gl
    libva
    libva-utils
    gnome.gnome-tweaks
    btop
  #  wget
  ];

  # This value determines the NixOS release from which the default
  # settings for stateful data, like file locations and database versions
  # on your system were taken. It‘s perfectly fine and recommended to leave
  # this value at the release version of the first install of this system.
  # Before changing this value read the documentation for this option
  # (e.g. man configuration.nix or on https://nixos.org/nixos/options.html).
  system.stateVersion = "24.05"; # Did you read the comment?

}

nvidia.nix:

{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }: 

{
 # Enable OpenGL
  hardware.opengl = {
    enable = true;
  };

  services.xserver.videoDrivers = ["nvidia"];

  hardware.nvidia = {
    package = config.boot.kernelPackages.nvidiaPackages.mkDriver {
      version = "560.35.03";
      sha256_64bit = "sha256-8pMskvrdQ8WyNBvkU/xPc/CtcYXCa7ekP73oGuKfH+M=";
      sha256_aarch64 = "sha256-s8ZAVKvRNXpjxRYqM3E5oss5FdqW+tv1qQC2pDjfG+s=";
      openSha256 = "sha256-/32Zf0dKrofTmPZ3Ratw4vDM7B+OgpC4p7s+RHUjCrg=";
      settingsSha256 = "sha256-kQsvDgnxis9ANFmwIwB7HX5MkIAcpEEAHc8IBOLdXvk=";
      persistencedSha256 = "sha256-E2J2wYYyRu7Kc3MMZz/8ZIemcZg68rkzvqEwFAL3fFs=";
    };

    # The nvidia-settings build is currently broken due to a missing
    # vulkan header; re-enable whenever
    # 0384602eac8bc57add3227688ec242667df3ffe3the hits stable.
    nvidiaSettings = false;

    modesetting.enable = true;
    powerManagement.enable = true;
    open = true;
  };

  environment.variables = {
    GBM_BACKEND = "nvidia-drm";
    __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME = "nvidia";
    MOZ_DISABLE_RDD_SANDBOX= "1" ;
    LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME = "nvidia";
  };
}

and when I run the command vainfo I get this error:

Trying display: wayland
libva info: VA-API version 1.21.0
libva info: User environment variable requested driver 'nvidia'
libva info: Trying to open /run/opengl-driver/lib/dri/nvidia_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_0
libva error: /run/opengl-driver/lib/dri/nvidia_drv_video.so init failed
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 1
vaInitialize failed with error code 1 (operation failed),exit

I don’t know if this helps but if I run the command journalctl -xe | grep nvidia the result is this:

set 11 20:54:35 nixos org.gnome.Shell.desktop[1583]: DRM kernel driver 'nvidia-drm' in use. NVK requires nouveau.
set 11 20:54:45 nixos .gnome-shell-wr[1927]: Added device '/dev/dri/card1' (nvidia-drm) using atomic mode setting.
set 11 20:54:48 nixos gnome-shell[2513]: DRM kernel driver 'nvidia-drm' in use. NVK requires nouveau.

I’ve set all the environment variables needed and also modified the about:config settings in firefox, what am I missing? Thx in advance.

2

I wonder if it works if you add nvidia-vaapi-driver to hardware.graphics.extraPackages

3

Yup, that should do the trick. I wonder if it’d make sense to introduce a programs.nvidia-vaapi-driver NixOS option that sets the required Firefox options and environment variables, and adds the package to hardware.graphics.extraPackages.

Edit: or to add it as an option to the existing hardware.nvidia module

Edit 2: hm, I never noticed, but this is already added to hardware.graphics.extraPackages by the nvidia module: nixpkgs/nixos/modules/hardware/video/nvidia.nix at 1355a0cbfeac61d785b7183c0caaec1f97361b43 · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub

4

If I add this: hardware.graphics.extraPackages = with pkgs; [ nvidia-vaapi-driver ];
to my nvidia.nix file, I get this error while rebuilding:

 error: The option `hardware.nvidia.hardware' does not exist. Definition values:
       - In `/etc/nixos/nvidia.nix':
           {
             graphics = {
               extraPackages = [
                 <derivation nvidia-vaapi-driver-0.0.12>
               ];

I tried changing hardware.graphics.extraPackages with hardware.opengl.extraPackage but I get the same error.

Sorry if I am missing something, is this what you meant?

5

Because you need to put it at the top-level not nested within hardware.nvidia.

6

It isn’t?

{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }: 

{
 # Enable OpenGL
  hardware.opengl = {
    enable = true;
  };
  
  hardware.graphics.extraPackages = with pkgs; [
    nvidia-vaapi-driver
  ];

  services.xserver.videoDrivers = ["nvidia"];

  boot.blacklistedKernelModules = [ "nouveau" ];

  hardware.nvidia = {
    package = config.boot.kernelPackages.nvidiaPackages.mkDriver {
      version = "560.35.03";
      sha256_64bit = "sha256-8pMskvrdQ8WyNBvkU/xPc/CtcYXCa7ekP73oGuKfH+M=";
      sha256_aarch64 = "sha256-s8ZAVKvRNXpjxRYqM3E5oss5FdqW+tv1qQC2pDjfG+s=";
      openSha256 = "sha256-/32Zf0dKrofTmPZ3Ratw4vDM7B+OgpC4p7s+RHUjCrg=";
      settingsSha256 = "sha256-kQsvDgnxis9ANFmwIwB7HX5MkIAcpEEAHc8IBOLdXvk=";
      persistencedSha256 = "sha256-E2J2wYYyRu7Kc3MMZz/8ZIemcZg68rkzvqEwFAL3fFs=";
    };
7

That’s not the entire file, nor do I know how you’ve integrated that file into your config. But if you didn’t have it nested you wouldn’t be getting that error.

8

If you have this set, it means you’re using NixOS 24.05, in which case the option’s name is hardware.opengl.extraPackages, so this should work:

  hardware.opengl = {
    enable = true;
    extraPackages = with pkgs; [
      nvidia-vaapi-driver
    ];
  };