Bug Report Crash on launch "Failed to initialize video: Unspecified error" Xubuntu 14.04

[ZeroLabs]

OBS-Studio ran so well on my workshop computer and sipped so little CPU resources that I felt confident it would also work way better than Webcam Max on my Asus netbook. I have tried both the stable build PPA and unstable. Both produce the same error. Both run the same version Xubuntu.

Workshop computer
P45T-A mobo
2.83GHz quad core
8GB ram
Dual Nvidia GT640 (GDDR5).

Netbook
Asus 1215N
Intel Atom D525 dual core hyperthreaded.
2GB ram
NVIDIA® ION™ discrete graphics processor

I will be happy to supply any log files you ask for to help resolve the problem.

 

[admalledd]

the failed to initialize video error is related to opening a OpenGL context along with GLSL shaders.
The best way to help here would be if you gave us a dump of "glxinfo | grep OpenGL" (shows your openGL version strings, and some of your driver info) as well as "lspci -v |grep VGA" (this is to check exact devices that are seen by the OS. for your netbook there is a chance that the discrete graphics is not "active")


Also to clarify, obs works on your workshop comuter ("both run the same version of Xubuntu"), but not on the netbook (neither unstable PPA or stable, "both produce the same error")?

 

[ZeroLabs]

~$ glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: Intel Open Source Technology Center
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) IGD
OpenGL version string: 1.4 Mesa 10.1.3
OpenGL extensions:

~$ lspci -v | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Atom Processor D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [ION 2] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

To clarify...
Workshop computer and Netbook both run the same OS, Xubuntu 14.04.
Netbook produces same error with OBS 0.6.4 stable and 0.6.4.1 unstable. I was hoping this might have already been addressed with the development builds. I will stick to the unstable PPA to help out with bug reporting as much as I can.

I can't wait to tell my 30,000 YouTube subscribers about this project!

Z

 

[dodgepong]

You need OpenGL version 3.2 to run OBS. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that GPU will cut it, unless you can find some new drivers for it, assuming it supports what it needs to at a hardware level.

 

[admalledd]

So yea, like I suspected: you are either missing your nvidia driver on the netbook or you are defaulting to using the integrated intel chipset.

This is a bit out of my depth because I have yet to use any system with integrated/discrete GPU sharing (eg using bumblebee). Make sure you have the nvidia drivers installed and active.

Some links to read up (where I would start). Sorry but someone else who has switchable graphics will have to help you besides me.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/hybrid_graphics (although its not for *buntu, the arch wiki always has good info to start from. mostly here its the name of the technology/programs to look up in ubuntu)

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee (ubuntu wiki about installing/using bumblebee)

If I understand correctly, once you have the drivers and switching stuff installed you would call obs like:

"optirun obs"

 

[ubuntuaddicted]

have you attempted to install any nvidia driver at all? did you check "additional drivers" area? i forget if that's in xubuntu. i run xubuntu 14.04.1 also but have a gtx 760 so i like using the latest driver from the nvidia website BUT for newer users it's best to stick with stuff built into the OS. good luck

UPDATE- i got ninja'd by previous posters. follow what he said about bumblebee/optirun. on a side note, maybe the forums mod's should sticky a post about this error as i'm betting it's going to occur a lot. :)

 

[ZeroLabs]

Well, I don't remember seeing any alternate video drivers before upgrading from 13.10 to 14.04 but they definitely are there now. I'm loading Nvidia binary driver v331.38-updates as I write this so we'll see how it goes. I'll report back here shortly.

 

[ZeroLabs]

OH BOY!!! OBS ran as soon as I upgraded to the Nvidia driver. Was getting a little over 1 second video lag streaming to Ustream. Going the next step installing Bumblebee I ran into a drm permission denied error. Found the solution to that here https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/issues/580. It's still not perfect but it is still better than Webcam Max was in Windows 7. Lag is now about 1/4-1/3 of a second

My divorce from Windows is final! I am so happy right now I could dance!!!

Z

 

[ZeroLabs]

Considering some of the comments I have seen here regarding what is looked upon as being antiquated hardware, I know it must come as a surprise to you that I even got OBS to work at all on my lowly little Netbook. One thing I notice is on the workshop computer with two GT640 graphics cards I can stream a maximum of only two simultaneous V4L2 sources. On my netbook I can stream only one at a time. Is it safe to say that the maximum number of simultaneous streams is locked to the number of available GPU's? Can this be improved upon?

Another point, probably should post this in feature requests but a separate streaming bitrate adjustment would be very helpful for mobile broadcasting.

 

[dodgepong]

Honestly, I am completely stunned that OBS is running at all on that netbook. What kind of encoding are you doing on it? I can't imagine it can do a very high resolution, frame rate, or x264 cpu preset.

When you say you can only stream 1/2 V4L2 sources, what do you mean? Do you get an error when you try to add more? That shouldn't be limited to GPU count, to my knowledge.

 

[ubuntuaddicted]

are you running multiple instances of obs-studio? when you say simultaneous streams you mean you're sending out a stream to for example hitbox AND twitch at the same time? and these "streams" each contain a different v4l source? actually regardless of what you're trying to accomplish you have to realize what you're asking you're asking your computer to do, you're asking it to grab the video source from a v4l device, encode it, and stream it. these aren't measly little threads here, encoding takes (good quality encoding) takes cpu horsepower.

as far as wanting to stream different bitrates, that can easily be accomplished by install nginx along with the rtmp module. there's a guide in the normal obs forums for doing this. that's how I triple stream to hitbox, twitch, and youtube BUT remember, each stream uses X amount of upload bandwidth and in my case I only have 5,000Kbps upload, so I can safely upload 3 different 1,500Kbps streams. using nginx to forward a stream doesn't require much cpu power BUT if you start using nginx to re-encode it to another bitrate NOW you need cpu juice!!

Good luck

 

[ZeroLabs]

Honestly, I am completely stunned that OBS is running at all on that netbook. What kind of encoding are you doing on it? I can't imagine it can do a very high resolution, frame rate, or x264 cpu preset.

Video capture devices are the internal USB cam 640x480 and a Logitech C270 1280x720 native running 640x360 at 30 FPS all day long. The x264 preset defaulted to Very Fast. I set it to Ultra Fast. 1280x720 gets jittery unless I throttle back the bitrate.

When you say you can only stream 1/2 V4L2 sources, what do you mean? Do you get an error when you try to add more? That shouldn't be limited to GPU count, to my knowledge.

I don't get any errors. What I get when I hit the wall and can't add any more Video Capture Devices is just a gray screen. In my workshop I have 5 Logitech C270 (that I'll talk about publicly) that I use. One over each of two benches, one face shot and two angles of the shop floor. In Webcam Max I'll sometimes have full screen over the bench I'm working at, my mug shot in one smaller inset and an overall view of the shop in another.

in OBS, when I try to add the third video capture device to the stream the Properties window is just gray and the main window has one single resize handle red dot in the top left of the screen. Same happens when I try to add a second video capture device on the Netbook.

 

[dodgepong]

Could be a V4L2 problem...I recommend starting a new thread about it, and include a log.

 

[ZeroLabs]

are you running multiple instances of obs-studio?

No, just one instance of OBS with multiple V4L2 Video Capture Devices running simultaneously. I normally stream to only one server at a time. In windows, any time I wanted to stream to multiple servers I would just launch multiple instances of FME but that was very rare.

as far as wanting to stream different bitrates, that can easily be accomplished by install nginx along with the rtmp module. there's a guide in the normal obs forums for doing this.

I've never heard of nginx. I'm being introduced here to many new tools I've never heard of before and I'm grateful for that. Throttling back my streaming bitrate is going to be extremely valuable.

Z

 

[ZeroLabs]

Could be a V4L2 problem...I recommend starting a new thread about it, and include a log.

Will do.

 

[ubuntuaddicted]

what you're experiencing with the grey box is an issue i also experience and it's sporatic. i have the logitech c260. sometimes loading a v4l device will work just fine, other times you have to play around with the actual settings of v4l source, meaning adjusting the format, resolution, etc etc. when that happens and i just can't get the damn grey box to load my webcam i'll just open guvcivew and then use xcomposite window capture and capture the guvcview video preview. you can launch multiple guvcviews via the terminal like so (this should work)

guvcview - d /dev/video0

guvcview -d /dev/video1

guvcview -d /dev/video2

good luck

 

[ubuntuaddicted]

there's already a v4l thread pinned at the top. you can get all the info about obs-studio trying to load your webcam IF you launch obs from a terminal

 

[ZeroLabs]

there's already a v4l thread pinned at the top. you can get all the info about obs-studio trying to load your webcam IF you launch obs from a terminal

Dude, you definitely want to see what I found and posted in that thread. I'm now able to run 1 PinP on my netbook (2 total) and 2 PinP on my workshop computer (3 total). The limitation is USB bandwidth and the root cause I suspect is the way Linux is treating the USB ports, as 1.1 not 2.0.

 

[ubuntuaddicted]

awesome! not sure what to tell ya about linux thinking you have usb 1.1 vs 2.0 ports but you're definitely pushing your computer to it's limits! that's why i love linux so much, it can run on a calculator. ;)

 

[ZeroLabs]

Check this out
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/55323354