firefox sound issue

X/ax · 2008-01-17 18:58:12

Hi, the firefox sound is always breaking my other sound up... When I'm - for example - looking at a youtube film, and afterwards start xmms, xmms complains that it cannot access the sound device. Also other sound stuff won't work anymore. The other way around, when something with sound is running, forget the youtube sound.
I know this has something to do with alsa/oss, and I have fixed it in the past, however, I no longer know how...
Can anyone throw me a bone here?

schivmeister · 2008-01-18 08:03:28

It looks like flash is set to use aoss or oss, in which case there is no mixing occuring so only one application can access the device. I would guess by default flash uses alsa, and alsa by default uses dmix, so by default there should be no problem, because until now i haven't had any ever since i installed Arch some 9 months ago or so. Is there an /etc/firefox/firefoxrc or something like that somewhere? Edit that and find the "FIREFOX_DSP" line and make it use alsa.

X/ax · 2008-01-18 11:16:23

I did not find any firefoxrc thing on my drive, however, I'll continue looking for it, or something similar. Thanks for the hint on the firefox_dsp thing.

skottish · 2008-01-18 12:22:37

Have you tried installing alsa-oss?

X/ax · 2008-01-18 12:46:04

skottish wrote:

Have you tried installing alsa-oss?

I have alsa-oss on my system (the reason for the install back then was trying to make the sound of enemy territory work)
I'm even suspecting that my entire alsa is broke. When I'm running xmms, vlc can't get "a lock on" to /dev/dsp, and there is no sound (except for the xmms sound), and visa versa.
Please advice, I have never had such a situation before, sound always worked just fine.

schivmeister · 2008-01-18 17:59:15

Hmm, then have you ever gotten 2 programs that output to ALSA to run simaltaneous? If not, you will have to look at the wiki for configuring alsa and it's own mixer (dmix).

X/ax · 2008-01-18 23:46:16

I have, at the very beginning of my install. That's the strange part.
Anyhow, I'm most likely going to reinstall all alsa packages, and if that doesn't work, reinstall arch in a whole. I've still got lots to learn about arch...

//edit
Could anyone by chance tell me how to find out what packages I've got installed? That way I can see which are necessary, and which aren't (maybe even find the error in there)

Last edited by X/ax (2008-01-18 23:56:08)

jacko · 2008-01-19 01:20:35

Could anyone by chance tell me how to find out what packages I've got installed?

man pacman

-Q, --query
Query the package database. This operation allows you to view
installed packages and their files, as well as meta-information
about individual packages (dependencies, conflicts, install date,
build date, size). This can be run against the local package
database or can be used on individual .tar.gz packages. See Query
Options below.

pacman -Q

Last edited by jacko (2008-01-19 01:22:07)

e_tank · 2008-01-19 07:08:16

you've probably already ruled this out but are you sure it's not xmms or just certain apps you're using? i've seen several apps that won't work unless they can get a lock on the sound device. for example audacious (which is based on bmp, which is based on xmms) works fine while i'm using flash but mednafen doesn't. they both output sound using alsa but mednafen can't open the sound device if anything else is using it. mednafen locks the audio device so when it's running no other program can use alsa or oss. you can try audacious (pacman -S audacious-player audacious-plugins), if it works you might want to consider switching (i did, from xmms). it's much better than it used to be and has improved a lot over the past year, i'm really pleased with it now.
also i'm using flashplugin 9.0.48.0-1, the latest version is absolute crap

brebs · 2008-01-19 07:32:48

For flashplugin on x86_64, see nspluginwrapper-ubuntu.

Last edited by brebs (2008-01-19 07:33:35)

nicferrier · 2008-03-08 09:41:00

BUMP!!!

I have exactly the same problem as this.

I have firefox 2.0.0.12 from arch and flashplayer r9,115

I am using this .asoundrc:

pcm.dmixer {
        type dmix
        ipc_key 321459  # any unique value
        ipc_key_add_uid true
        slave {
                pcm "hw:0,0"
        }
}

ctl.dmixer {
    type hw
    card 0
}

pcm.!default {
         type asym
         playback.pcm "dmixer"
         capture.pcm {
                 type plug
                 slave.pcm "hw:2,0"
         } 
}

this is in an effort to get my webcam mic to operate for flash. That works, it also works in skype.

The playback mixes perfectly between audacious, skype and aplay (audacity is oss I think so I'll try that later).

But firefox just refuses to pickup the audio if something else is using it. It doesn't seem to use dmix at all.

Firefox is definitely using ALSA; when it's outputting audio (if I shut everything else down first it will) there is no usage of /dev/dsp (I don't even have one on my system).

So it looks like flash is just not accepting use of the mixer?

venox · 2008-03-08 16:19:00

I have a similar problem. I can play sounds from Firefox (flash) at the same time I listen to music on mpd and even hear the sound notifications from pidgin (dmix is working fine). Although, sometimes flash (or something else) just breaks my sound. I have to kill mpd and/or firefox (or any application that is using the sound card) constantly so I can listen again to music (and can unfreeze the other apps that are using sound).

I'm using snd-hda-intel:

$ lspci | grep Audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)

venox · 2008-03-08 16:37:56

I've created the file /etc/profile.d/firefox.sh (and chmodded it a+x) with the following content:

#!/bin/bash
export FIREFOX_DSP="aoss"

Not sure if this will really fix this, but, so far, I had no sound breaking.

EDIT:
The above hack didn't fixed things. Now I'm using OSS instead of ALSA and have no problems. OSS4 is really nice.

Last edited by venox (2008-03-08 18:25:59)

nicferrier · 2008-03-08 22:46:18

you shouldn't have to do this if you're using flash9 since it's an alsa program.

I installed oss4, but I couldn't see that it does everything that I want. Can I make it give my webcam microphone to flash?

venox · 2008-03-09 03:22:39

About the webcam thing, I don't know. I just love how software mixing works under OSS4. And how well it performs under savage (snd-hda-intel from ALSA gives some irritant stuttering on the sound while playing it).
Anyway, sound input via linein doesn't work under OSS4 for my sound card.
I really want to fix this sound issue under ALSA too, any ideas?

nicferrier · 2008-03-10 11:39:40

how DOES the software mixing work under OSS4?

I want to pull in my external mic to a default config but I can't see how to do it.

PuJIb · 2009-06-14 18:06:28

I had the same problem with Firefox3 and mpd. Mpd config section concerning sound driver looked this way:

audio_output {
type "alsa"
name "My ALSA Device"
device "hw:0,0" # optional
format "44100:16:2" # optional
}

All problems have gone once I've commented out 2 last lines (which are optional).

To launch xmms with firerox, I used the command "aoss xmms" (actually, I don't use xmms, just was curious to find out whether it works). Flashplugin 10.0.22, Firefox 3.0.10, mpd 0.14.2.

Hope this will be useful for someone.

javiertw89 · 2010-05-05 23:43:44

Do you have ALSA running in background? (i.e. it has a @ in rc.conf) When I changed that, my problem solved.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-01-17 18:58:12

firefox sound issue

#2 2008-01-18 08:03:28

Re: firefox sound issue

#3 2008-01-18 11:16:23

Re: firefox sound issue

#4 2008-01-18 12:22:37

Re: firefox sound issue

#5 2008-01-18 12:46:04

Re: firefox sound issue

#6 2008-01-18 17:59:15

Re: firefox sound issue

#7 2008-01-18 23:46:16

Re: firefox sound issue

#8 2008-01-19 01:20:35

Re: firefox sound issue

#9 2008-01-19 07:08:16

Re: firefox sound issue

#10 2008-01-19 07:32:48

Re: firefox sound issue

#11 2008-03-08 09:41:00

Re: firefox sound issue

#12 2008-03-08 16:19:00

Re: firefox sound issue

#13 2008-03-08 16:37:56

Re: firefox sound issue

#14 2008-03-08 22:46:18

Re: firefox sound issue

#15 2008-03-09 03:22:39

Re: firefox sound issue

#16 2008-03-10 11:39:40

Re: firefox sound issue

#17 2009-06-14 18:06:28

Re: firefox sound issue

#18 2010-05-05 23:43:44

Re: firefox sound issue

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