[fritsch]

Question: I followed @fritsch guide for Ubuntu 18.04 and use the Padoka MESA PPA with Kodi nightly and all I get is SW decoding only. I even tried mainline 4.17.X kernels along with the firmware files for vega but can get HW decoding. Any thoughts on where to check or what to tweak?

 Too old :-) Use 4.18-rc3 all others did not have vega patches - if it still does not work -> post the links @fritsch wants to have.  

@fritsch 

Here you go, just tried today with rc4 and no luck.

dpkg -l |grep mesa | pastebinit - http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/5bXPXdQwDP/

For some reason vainfo is acting up:
kodi@den4khtpc:~$ DISPLAY=:0 vainfo | pastebinit
libva info: VA-API version 1.1.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeonsi_drv_video.so
libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1
vaInitialize failed with error code -1 (unknown libva error),exit
You are trying to send an empty document, exiting.

cat ~/.kodi/temp/kodi.log | pastebinit -b pastebin.com - https://pastebin.com/TDK1jFkQ
dmesg | pastebinit -b pastebin.com - https://pastebin.com/qnTHzhDn
id | pastebinit - http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/qTJ2pq7dxc/
amixer | pastebinit - http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/qFK5txRSkw/
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | pastebinit -b pastebin.com - https://pastebin.com/EMZ7k4gr 

 
Yes. You need firmware NOT included in Ubuntu. or nothing will work.