webcam (go2rtc) disconnects regularly in safari on macos

[mmerickel]

Mainsail Version:

2.13.2

Browser:

Safari

Device:

Laptop

Operating System:

macOS

What happened?

Added webcam (go2rtc) integration to my local go2rtc instance hosted by home assistant/frigate.

Stream URL: http://hass.local:1984?cam=ender3pro_cam
Snapshot URL: http://hass.local:1984/api/frame.jpeg?cam=ender3pro_cam

This stream works fine except that there is a blip every 40-ish seconds it disconnects and reconnects the stream.

[Log] [WebRTC go2rtc] connecting to ws://hass.local:1984/api/ws?src=ender3pro_cam&media=video (WebrtcGo2rtc-2a46754e.js, line 1)
[Log] [WebRTC go2rtc] open (WebrtcGo2rtc-2a46754e.js, line 1)
[Log] [WebRTC go2rtc] connection state changed – "connecting" (WebrtcGo2rtc-2a46754e.js, line 1)
[Log] [WebRTC go2rtc] connection state changed – "connected" (WebrtcGo2rtc-2a46754e.js, line 1)
[Log] [WebRTC go2rtc] connection state changed – "disconnected" (WebrtcGo2rtc-2a46754e.js, line 1)
[Log] [WebRTC go2rtc] terminating (WebrtcGo2rtc-2a46754e.js, line 1)
[Log] [WebRTC go2rtc] close (WebrtcGo2rtc-2a46754e.js, line 1)
[Log] [WebRTC go2rtc] connecting to ws://hass.local:1984/api/ws?src=ender3pro_cam&media=video (WebrtcGo2rtc-2a46754e.js, line 1)
[Log] [WebRTC go2rtc] open (WebrtcGo2rtc-2a46754e.js, line 1)
[Log] [WebRTC go2rtc] connection state changed – "connecting" (WebrtcGo2rtc-2a46754e.js, line 1)
[Log] [WebRTC go2rtc] connection state changed – "connected" (WebrtcGo2rtc-2a46754e.js, line 1)

The time between the "connected" and "disconnected" lines is consistently about 40 seconds.

What did you expect to happen instead?

no blip - solid stream like on Chrome

How to reproduce this bug?

I'm using Safari Version 18.4 (20621.1.15.11.10) on macOS 15.4. This issue does not occur when I use Chrome Version 135.0.7049.85 (Official Build) (arm64) and appears to be specific to Safari in my testing. I have also reproduced this issue using Safari on iOS.

Additional information:

I spent some time trying to debug this and as I said above this appears to be specific to Safari as I've had my Chrome tab open for 20 minutes without any issue, no drops / reconnects. With or without the STUN config change I mention below - Chrome is rock solid.

I googled around about webrtc connections dropping after 40 seconds and uncovered some comments about Safari, mostly on iOS, having issues with ICE server config / connections and manifesting in similar timeouts. With that in mind I tweaked the javascript to comment out the default iceServers config here:

mainsail/src/components/webcams/streamers/WebrtcGo2rtc.vue

Line 142 in e2e6ea5

iceServers: [{ urls: 'stun:stun.l.google.com:19302' }],

and it actually did make a big difference but didn't fully fix the issue. With the STUN server removed it changed the behavior (consistently) such that the initial connection would remain open for 6-7 minutes. After this time it would disconnect and then reconnect every 40 seconds or so similarly to before.

[Surion79]

when did it start with this issue? When upgrading to iOS 18.4 i had issues with video feeds on mainsail, but somewhere in the docs, it was mentioned that in some cases, it was technically reasoned regarding iOS (But MacOS has the same issue).
Is the log a mainsail log or crowsnest log?
would be interesting to see the crowsnest.conf.
on the crowsnest repo it was mentioned to run make update again to recompile some components, which often fixes issues regarding video.

[mmerickel]

I’m not using crowsnest. My understanding is that is only for locally connected devices. My setup is using go2rtc running within frigate on my home assistant machine separately.

The logs I pasted here are captured from the browser console from the JavaScript code in the file I linked.

I’m pretty new to mainsail in the last couple months so I can’t give a history whether it used to work on safari previously. But it’s rock solid on chrome on macOS.

[meteyou]

@Surion79 pay attention, that the MacOS Screen Time "feature" makes some really strange things and for some users, it just changed on some updates. so at first pls check this settings: #1774 (comment)

if you have other issues, i would recommend you to join the Mainsail Discord server and open a support ticket.

[mmerickel]

@meteyou I know you're not talking to me above but since we're commenting on my issue I'll note that I've always had Content&Privacy disabled in Screen Time.

[mmerickel]

Maybe it's worth pointing out that all is not lost on Safari and the problem should actually be fixable. I have at least a couple examples of ways to view the camera stream that work without any problems. For example:

• The frigate camera viewer.
• The go2rtc-hosted /stream.html which auto-negotiates and loads the video-rtc.js javascript code to setup the RTC streaming.

The dropouts/blips seem specific to something that fluidd/mainsail are doing in their javascript implementation. Considering I'm selecting the WebRTC (go2rtc) option in mainsail it'd make sense to me to make an attempt to use the hosted video-rtc.js to serve the video.

[meteyou]

@mmerickel why should we use the specify js script from there side? this will not work. this is not a "generic script which can be used like a god mode to use all webcams in every page". this is a script specified for this specific page from go2rtc. nothing more.

i'm right now closer to this point to just delete all other webcam option, then we are provide (so mjpegstreaer + webrtc (camerastreamer)).

[Surion79]

i'm right now closer to this point to just delete all other webcam option, then we are provide (so mjpegstreaer + webrtc (camerastreamer)).

So ustreamer is out as well?

[meteyou]

Ustreamer is mjpegstreamer...

[meteyou]

To be honest. We are speaking about a 3d printer Webinterface, Not a webcam interface. Webcam is just a side feature and no main feature of Mainsail, bit it looks like that many users think the main feature of Mainsail is providing webcam support!

In the last year, I spend more time in webcam support instead of printer/Klipper Support, which is just not the goal for this project.

We also provide a good and solid webcam stack with crowsnest and all streamers are well supported by mainsail and we are know every streamer update and changes. But all other streamers are black boxes for us. Every update can break something and nobody from the crew uses them.

[mmerickel]

Hey I appreciate the frustration - I was just trying to provide useful info to indicate that this issue is actually fixable somehow in Safari by providing some examples of code that does work correctly.

I agree that there are issues embedding their remote javascript in the page - but it could be isolated in an iframe for that specific camera. It's just an idea.

Another option is an embedded iframe that uses the go2rtc-provided stream.html page for every one of their camera streams. That would dramatically reduce the maintenance for you, no?

Streaming URL = http://hass.local:1984/stream.html?src=ender3pro could then be directly embedded. The mainsail code is already translating the URL I type in to turn it into a websocket connection etc - instead it could be translated to this. The advantage here is actually that the stream.html that go2rtc implements also auto-negotiates the correct format with the server, not necessarily WebRTC but also HLS/MSE/etc. Just let go2rtc deal with it.

Apologies for triggering the exasperated replies, I'm an open source maintainer myself and I totally get it. I'm trying to help. :-)

[meteyou]

thank you very much for all your information!

iframes for webcams is a topic we have already discussed several times here in the issue tracker. but iframes also have many other sideeffects and cause even more problems, especially at the responsive level, which is why I have a great dislike for them.

can you please leave instructions here on how to set up a go2rtc webcam via HASS? maybe a contributor has time to take a closer look at this problem and so you could make the setup as easy as possible for him. i would just leave this issue open for someone to take it up.

[bpengu1n]

I'm having this issue as well - I'm looking into seeing if I can nail down a solution :)