Sample code in MSS Essentials 2015R6 returning error

[Robby_S]

Dear Intel Engineers,

After I successfully (I believe) installed the MSS (Media Server Studio) Essentials 2015R6 release, the first sample code I run is returning errors. Could you help me decide what the issue is? Thanks!

Please read the following for details.

******************************************************

My platform:

CPU: Intel Core i7-4870HQ CPU@2.50GHz x 8

GPU: Intel Haswell Mobile (the sticker by the touchpad has "Iris Pro Graphics" on it)

OS: CentOS Linux release 7.1.1503 (Core)

Linux Kernel: 3.10.0-229.7.2.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP (this did not change after the MSS installation and reboot)

MSS version: Essentials 2015R6 for Linux (mediaserverstudioessentials2015r6.tar.gz)

******************************************************

My procedure:

I followed the document, Intel® Media Server Studio 2015 - Driver, SDK, Samples for Linux* Getting Started Guide (below I'll refer to it as MSSGSG for the sake of brevity). I didn't download MSSGSG directly from Intel's website. Rather I got it after first untarring mediaserverstudioessentials2015r6.tar.gz, and then untarring SDK2015Production16.4.2.1.tar.gz.

Before installing MSS, I tested the pre-erquisite as below:

-------------------------------------------------------------

$ lspci -nn -s 00:02.0
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Crystal Well Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0d26] (rev 08)

-------------------------------------------------------------

I then followed MSSGSG all the way through the section, Verifying correct installation. Below is what I got:

-------------------------------------------------------------

$ lsmod | grep 'i915'
i915                  929459  6
i2c_algo_bit           13413  1 i915
drm_kms_helper         98226  1 i915
drm                   311588  5 i915,drm_kms_helper
i2c_core               40325  7 drm,i915,i2c_i801,i2c_hid,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,videodev
video                  19263  1 i915

-------------------------------------------------------------

Compared with the list in MSSGSG, I didn't have intel_gtt and button. Is that expected? Other than those two items missing, the MSS installation seemed successful.

******************************************************

How the error was generated:

I did not follow MSSGSG to download and build the sample code. Rather, I noticed that a sample package, MediaSamples_Linux_bins_6.0.16043175.175.tar.gz, already existed inside the directory that had been generated after I untarred mediaserverstudioessentials2015r6.tar.gz. I decided to use that sample package to save me from building the sample from source.

I untarred the sample package, and copied the generated directory to /opt/intel/mediasdk/samples. Below is a list of files in the directory and its sub-directory:

-------------------------------------------------------------

$ ls -al
total 3044
drwxr-xr-x.  3 rsun rsun   4096 Jul 15 15:38 .
drwxr-xr-x. 10 root root   4096 Jul 15 15:39 ..
drwxr-xr-x.  2 rsun rsun   4096 Jul 15 15:38 content
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 rsun rsun     94 Jul 15 15:38 README
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 rsun rsun 362625 Jul 15 15:38 sample_decode_drm
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 rsun rsun 362370 Jul 15 15:38 sample_decode_x11
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 rsun rsun 384344 Jul 15 15:38 sample_encode_drm
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 rsun rsun 384254 Jul 15 15:38 sample_encode_x11
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 rsun rsun 471562 Jul 15 15:38 sample_multi_transcode_drm
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 rsun rsun 471307 Jul 15 15:38 sample_multi_transcode_x11
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 rsun rsun 325875 Jul 15 15:38 sample_vpp_drm
-rwxr-xr-x.  1 rsun rsun 321466 Jul 15 15:38 sample_vpp_x11
$ ls -al content
total 3436
drwxr-xr-x. 2 rsun rsun    4096 Jul 15 15:38 .
drwxr-xr-x. 3 rsun rsun    4096 Jul 15 15:38 ..
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 rsun rsun     237 Jul 15 15:38 about-the-video.txt
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 rsun rsun 2559744 Jul 15 15:38 test_stream_176x96.yuv
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 rsun rsun  267554 Jul 15 15:38 test_stream.264
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 rsun rsun  145198 Jul 15 15:38 test_stream.265
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 rsun rsun   10242 Jul 15 15:38 test_stream.jpg
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 rsun rsun  214320 Jul 15 15:38 test_stream.mpeg2
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 rsun rsun  117268 Jul 15 15:38 test_stream_vp8.ivf
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 rsun rsun  178689 Jul 15 15:38 test_stream_vp9.ivf

-------------------------------------------------------------

Note that I had the permission to create new files in the /opt/intel/mediasdk/samples directory. Then I typed the command below to run the sample, and got the following errors:

-------------------------------------------------------------

$ ./sample_multi_transcode_drm -i::h264 content/test_stream.h264 -o::h264 test_out.h264 -hw
Multi Transcoding Sample Version 6.0.16043175.175

libva info: VA-API version 0.35.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: User requested driver 'iHD'
libva info: Trying to open /opt/intel/mediasdk/lib64/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_32
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0

Return on error: error code -2,    /home/lab_msdk/buildAgentDir/buildAgent_MediaSDK3/git/mdp_msdk-samples/samples/sample_multi_transcode/src/pipeline_transcode.cpp    2515

Return on error: error code -2,    /home/lab_msdk/buildAgentDir/buildAgent_MediaSDK3/git/mdp_msdk-samples/samples/sample_multi_transcode/src/sample_multi_transcode.cpp    146

-------------------------------------------------------------

What I don't understand, is that there is no such directory /home/lab_msdk/ on my PC, but the errors seem to indicate that I should have some source code files in that non-existing directory. Why is that?

It's a long post. Thank you in advance for reading, understanding, and trouble shooting my problem!

-Robby

[Shaojuan_Z_Intel]

Hi Robby,

Thank you for providing detailed information! This makes the investigation much easier. The error code -2 means MediaSDK found null pointer, in this case, it could be that it didn't find the specified source file. In your command, I guess you were in the samples binary directory, and the test stream should be in a folder that's upper level, and the file name should be test_stream.264 instead of test_stream.h264. So you might try again with this command "./sample_multi_transcode_drm -i::h264 ../content/test_stream.264 -o::h264 test_out.h264 -hw" instead, and please let us know if you see a different error.Thanks!

[Robby_S]

Hi Shaojuan,

Thanks for your response, and yes the file name extension should be .264, not .h264. That's a nice catch.

I was in the samples binary directory, but I made sure that content/test_stream.264 was in the same directory, as shown above by the `ls -al` commands. I tried the same command (with file extension corrected), and this time I got different errors. Please see below:

-------------------------------------------------------------

$ ./sample_multi_transcode_drm -i::h264 content/test_stream.264 -o::h264 test_out.264 -hw
Multi Transcoding Sample Version 6.0.16043175.175

libva info: VA-API version 0.35.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: User requested driver 'iHD'
libva info: Trying to open /opt/intel/mediasdk/lib64/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_32
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
Pipeline surfaces number: 21
MFX HARDWARE Session 0 API ver 1.16 parameters:
Input  video: AVC
Output video: AVC

Session 0 was NOT joined with other sessions

Transcoding started
.
Return on error: error code -17,    /home/lab_msdk/buildAgentDir/buildAgent_MediaSDK3/git/mdp_msdk-samples/samples/sample_multi_transcode/src/pipeline_transcode.cpp    1084

Return on error: error code -17,    /home/lab_msdk/buildAgentDir/buildAgent_MediaSDK3/git/mdp_msdk-samples/samples/sample_multi_transcode/src/pipeline_transcode.cpp    1051

Transcoding finished

Common transcoding time is  0.01 sec
MFX session 0 transcoding FAILED:
Processing time: 0.01 sec
Number of processed frames: 1

The test FAILED

Return on error: error code 1,    /home/lab_msdk/buildAgentDir/buildAgent_MediaSDK3/git/mdp_msdk-samples/samples/sample_multi_transcode/src/sample_multi_transcode.cpp    513

-------------------------------------------------------------

I have two questions:

1) What does the error code -17 mean, and what might be the cause for the error?

2) Where can I find the information about all the error codes?

I also tried to play the file, content/test_stream.264, with the VLC player, but couldn't. How do I verify that the file is not corrupted?

Thanks again,

-Robby

[Shaojuan_Z_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hi Robby,

After reading again, I noticed that you copied the content folder already. Sorry I missed it earlier. Regarding to your questions, error code -17 means device failure. You can find more information about the error codes in mfxdefs.h under /opt/intel/mediasdk/include. The file test_stream.264 is a short test video, it is unlikely that it is corrupted. If you want, you can play it with ffplay too.

I looked through your comment, and noticed that the kernel after reboot seems not right. After reboot, when you type uname -r, you should see something with "MSSrN" in the ID (where N is the release number). Please ensure you reboot to the correct kernel. If not, the installation was not successful. Also, when you run the samples as a regular user, please make sure the user is added to video group already, otherwise, please run the samples as root. Thanks!

[Robby_S]

Hi Shaojuan,

You nailed it! It was indeed the kernel.

Back when I ran the command `rpm -Uvh kernel-3.10.*.rpm` as root, the kernel was not updated due to the following warning:

-------------------------------------------------------------
    package kernel-3.10.0-229.7.2.el7.x86_64 (which is newer than kernel-3.10.0-229.1.2.39163.MSSr4.el7.centos.x86_64) is already installed

-------------------------------------------------------------

Somehow I missed that warning. The section "Verifying correct installation" in MSSGSG talks about `uname -r`, but does not specify exactly what to look for.

This time, I ran the command `rpm -Uvh --oldpackage kernel-3.10.*.rpm` to force a kernel update, and then rebooted.

Now the sample code ran successfully:

-------------------------------------------------------------

$ ./sample_multi_transcode_drm -i::h264 content/test_stream.264 -o::h264 test_out.264 -hw
Multi Transcoding Sample Version 6.0.16043175.175

libva info: VA-API version 0.35.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: User requested driver 'iHD'
libva info: Trying to open /opt/intel/mediasdk/lib64/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_32
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
Pipeline surfaces number: 21
MFX HARDWARE Session 0 API ver 1.16 parameters:
Input  video: AVC
Output video: AVC

Session 0 was NOT joined with other sessions

Transcoding started
..
Transcoding finished

Common transcoding time is  0.08 sec
MFX session 0 transcoding PASSED:
Processing time: 0.08 sec
Number of processed frames: 101

The test PASSED

-------------------------------------------------------------
 

Thanks a lot for your help!

Cheers,

-Robby

[Shaojuan_Z_Intel]

Hi Robby,

Glad you got it working, and thank you for updating!