Sunday, December 5, 2010

Getting Flash 10.2 beta GPU acceleration working on Ubuntu 10.10 on an Acer Revo

Unloading the video rendering to the GPU is one of the main reasons a cheap low-powered box like the Revo can function as a HD video source.
This has been supported in lots of ways previously (vlc etc.) but Flash support was always a bit of a let down.
But Flash 10.2 beta changes that. It unloads almost all the work to the GPU leaving the CPU usage very low. The difference is startling - my Revo can now play full 1080p flash video with ease.
Here's how I set it up:
The full way to get flash using on an Acer Revo on ubuntu 10.10:
Install the new flash 10.2 beta:
wget http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/flashplayer10_2_p2_32bit_linux_111710.tar.gz
tar zxvf flashplayer10_2_p2_32bit_linux_111710.tar.gz
sudo cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/
You may need to also replace flash in other locations if you have installed in multiple places (try using 'locate libflashplayer.so' for a complete list)
Then for gpu support you also need:
sudo apt-get install libvdpau1
If you also want it working in chrome try:
To verify it is working go to a high-def you-tube video and play it. While it is playing right click and select - video info. You should see "Accelerated Video Rendering" if it has worked.
These instructions worked on my Acer Revo with Ubuntu 10.10.
Links:
My answer (and question!) here: 
This helpful thread: