Open Bug 1978221 Opened 22 days ago Updated 4 days ago

webrender_compositor blocked in Firefox Release/ESR on Crostini (Pixel Slate) despite hardware support

Categories

(Core :: Graphics, defect)

Firefox 140
defect

Tracking

()

UNCONFIRMED

People

(Reporter: rdramey, Unassigned)

Details

Firefox for Android

Steps to reproduce:

On a Pixel Slate running ChromeOS with Crostini (Debian), Firefox Release/ESR blocks webrender_compositor at runtime using FEATURE_FAILURE_DISABLE_RELEASE_OR_BETA, even when GPU acceleration is working (via VirGL/Mesa) and all relevant prefs are set.

The same feature works when using Firefox Nightly on the exact same hardware and OS setup.

This artificial block degrades performance of web applications and cannot be disabled by the user. There is no opt-out or workaround in stable builds.

On a Pixel Slate with Crostini Linux (Debian 12), install firefox-esr.

Confirm GPU works:

glxinfo | grep renderer → shows VirGL on Intel

Launch Firefox with:

MOZ_DISABLE_RDD_SANDBOX=1

all gfx.webrender.* and layers.gpu-process.enabled prefs set to true

Visit about:support → observe:

Compositing: WebRender

webrender_compositor shows:

    default: disabled

    env: blocklisted

    runtime: blocked

    with failure code: FEATURE_FAILURE_DISABLE_RELEASE_OR_BETA

Actual results:

If GPU acceleration is available and the user has explicitly enabled relevant prefs, WebRender compositor should not be forcibly blocked in stable builds.

Expected results:

WebRender compositor is hard-disabled with no override path in Release/ESR, despite working configuration.

Sorry, the above seems to indicate that it is firefox android and it is NOT. It is standard Linux firefox installed in the linux portion of the tablet as described above. Unfortunately, I see no way to remove that "firefox for android" from the description.

Finally, I've found that using Firefox Nightly enables the compositor and restores correct performance.

So, to summarize:

Crostini container uses Mesa/virgl on Intel GPU
No way for user to override block in ESR/Release
Nightly works correctly

There should be a way to enable webrender_compositor on the ESR releases.

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug should belong to the 'Firefox for Android::General' component, and is moving the bug to that component. Please correct in case you think the bot is wrong.

Component: Untriaged → General
Product: Firefox → Firefox for Android

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:calu, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Flags: needinfo?(calu)
Flags: needinfo?(calu)
Product: Firefox for Android → Firefox
Component: General → Graphics
Product: Firefox → Core
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.