Arch Linux

jholbrook

Member

Registered: 2010-07-08

Posts: 18

No sound in browser even as root

Sound recently stopped working only in my browsers.

If I run Firefox I see the following error whenever something tries to run with sound:

ALSA lib pcm_pulse.c:1019:(_snd_pcm_pulse_open) Unknown field fallback
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:1401:(_snd_pcm_hw_open) Invalid value for card
ALSA lib pcm_pulse.c:1019:(_snd_pcm_pulse_open) Unknown field fallback
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:1401:(_snd_pcm_hw_open) Invalid value for card

This repeats over and over. I've done some searching and there's mention of making sure you're in the audio group (which I am) etc. But nothing seems to get sound back for Firefox.

I can play audio and video files just fine in other software such as vlc.

Any ideas?

# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: AD198x Analog [AD198x Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: AD198x Digital [AD198x Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 2: AD198x Headphone [AD198x Headphone]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Speaker test works fine:

$ speaker-test -c 2

speaker-test 1.0.25

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 96 to 1048576
Period size range from 32 to 349526
Using max buffer size 1048576
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 262144
was set buffer_size = 1048576
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
Time per period = 13.295317
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
Time per period = 13.294418
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
^C

# cat /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf 
options snd slots=snd-intel8x0

# lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_codec_analog    79760  1 
snd_hda_intel          23343  2 
snd_hda_codec          89160  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_analog
snd_hwdep               6389  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                74780  2 snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc          7153  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              19544  1 snd_pcm
snd                    59214  10 snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_analog
soundcore               6210  1 snd

I've double checked my settings in alsamixer and I see nothing muted that shouldn't be.

jholbrook

Member

Registered: 2010-07-08

Posts: 18

Re: No sound in browser even as root

What the heck?

Found some mention about making a frequency change in asound.conf.  Found no settings for frequency but instead I just renamed /etc/asound.conf to /etc/asound.conf.bak. Now my sound in Firefox works great. Didn't even have to restart Firefox.

I guess the problem is solved.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,700

Re: No sound in browser even as root

May I strongly suggest you reconsider the wisdom of running a browser as root.

---

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues.— Dionysius of Halicarnassus
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

jholbrook

Member

Registered: 2010-07-08

Posts: 18

Re: No sound in browser even as root

No. of course I don't run the browser as root. That would be just stupid.

I had no sound as my regular user account. From my reading into this issue there was mention of it being a potential permissions problem. I TESTED my browser as root and the problem still occurred.

Thanks though. It is good advice as there are some people who probably do just run everything as root.