System Information incorrectly shows “Video Playback: Disabled (Software rendering)” on AMD RDNA3 GPUs

[jamesperkin]

Distribution

Mint 22.3

Package version

6.6.3

Graphics hardware in use

Radeon RX9070XT

Frequency

Always

Bug description

On Linux Mint 22.3, the GPU section of the System Information tool shows:

Video Playback: Disabled (Software rendering)

even though hardware video decoding is fully functional on AMD RDNA3 GPUs (Radeon RX 7000 series).
vainfo confirms that all major VA‑API profiles (H.264, HEVC, VP9, AV1) are supported and working.

This appears to be a detection bug in Cinnamon’s System Information panel.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon on a system with an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (or other RDNA3 GPU).
2. Open System Settings → System Information → Graphics.
3. Observe that Video Playback is listed as Disabled (Software rendering).
4. Run vainfo and note that all VA‑API profiles are present and functional.

Expected behavior

System Information should show Video Playback: Enabled when VA‑API hardware decoding is available.

Additional information

3D acceleration (OpenGL, Vulkan) is correctly detected as Enabled.
This appears to be a detection issue specific to RDNA3’s VCN 4.x media engine.
Hardware decoding works correctly in applications such as mpv and Firefox.
This is likely a UI‑level bug in Cinnamon’s capability detection logic.

System info:

• Linux Mint version: 22.3
• Edition: Cinnamon
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (RDNA3)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9700X
• Kernel: 6.15.7-061507-generic
• Mesa package version: 25.3.2~kisak1~n
• Display server: X11 (Xorg package version 2:21.1.12-1ubuntu1.5)

vainfo output:
@Desktop-Mint:~$ vainfo libva info: VA-API version 1.20.0 libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_20 libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0 vainfo: VA-API version: 1.20 (libva 2.12.0) vainfo: Driver version: Mesa Gallium driver 25.3.2 - kisak-mesa PPA for AMD Radeon Graphics (radeonsi, gfx1201, LLVM 20.1.8, DRM 3.63, 6.15.7-061507-generic) vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointEncSlice VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointEncSlice VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileHEVCMain : VAEntrypointEncSlice VAProfileHEVCMain10 : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileHEVCMain10 : VAEntrypointEncSlice VAProfileJPEGBaseline : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVP9Profile0 : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileVP9Profile2 : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileAV1Profile0 : VAEntrypointVLD VAProfileAV1Profile0 : VAEntrypointEncSlice VAProfileNone : VAEntrypointVideoProc

[WhosyVox]

I initially had the same issue until I manually installed vainfo and restarted the Mintreport app. (For whatever reason this is not installed during upgrades, I don't know about fresh installs.)

It looks like, based on the output of vainfo, yours should be detected still. Have you checked since?

(The source code only seems to check for the string 'Driver version' or 'VAProfile' in vainfo output, but this will immediately fail if vainfo wasn't already installed at time of testing.)

Note that my testing was done within a virtual machine, but with OpenGL acceleration enabled and sharing access to my 7900 XTX. While the driver is repoted as virtio-pci, vainfo correctly identifies as AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (radionsi, navi31).

[jamesperkin]

Hi @WhosyVox.
Thank you for your response.
Yes, I've checked again today and Video Playback is now showing Enabled (VA-API) in the System Information tool. I only installed vainfo after observing the incorrect report in the tool but didn't restart the System info tool after installing vainfo.
So, the behaviour I'm seeing is consistent with what you've described.
Would be good for someone with a fresh install to confirm for us.
FYI My Mint install is on a physical machine (not VM) and was upgrades from 22.2.
Cheers.

[leigh123linux]

The issue should be filed against https://github.com/linuxmint/mintreport/issues

[jamesperkin]

Thanks @leigh123linux; I have re-posted there.