Alsa Doesn’t work in Firefox 89.0.1 on Antix. Solved

[Member stevesr0]

Hi,

I have sound working in Firefox 78 (ESR) on my newest computer with Antix 19.4 installed. I just tried the newesdt version 89.0.1 and sound doesn’t work in the browser. I have another computer running Antix Sid and the 89.0.1 version is the only firefox version in the Sid repositories.

I know there has been an on and off ALSA working/not working in Firefox for several years.

Just seeking to mention this for others interest (?).

I am able to get sound in other browsers (on the Sid install with openbox, cutebrowser plays music ok).

stevesr0

• This topic was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by ModdIt.

[Member ModdIt]

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Hi stevesr0
Just checked, have sound on both 19 fully updated and runit testing. I have never lost sound for long with firefox,
usually been a case of sound device or/and mixer settings.

Please first try starting firefox from the console with apulse firefox, also check no muting in alsamixergui,
if you do not get sound there are posts setting up and using alsa with firefox.

You can find a number of posts in browser thread, maybe more searching on sound with alsa.

How is your setup connected, you may find HDMI and Display port adapters less effective/more of a pain to setup than
using audio out jack.
I found using dedicated audio outputs gives clearer sound both with internal audio and sound blaster audigy.
Expected as they are not designed to be used with sound limited devices such as TV.

“Present .asound.conf
#Substitute N with a small integer, 0 for your first sound card (which is the default),
#1 for your second, and so on.

pcm.!default {
type hw
card 0
}

ctl.!default {
type hw
card 0
}
”
and .asoundrc

defaults.pcm.!card PCH
defaults.ctl.!card PCH

you can also try below as asoundrc.

defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.ctl.card 1

You may have to set those two with regard to your hardware.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by ModdIt.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by ModdIt.

[Member stevesr0]

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Thanks Moddit,

I will try these.

Bear in mind that on my “regular” 19 install on my new computer, the default firefox (firefox esr) has sound. On the computer with the Sid install, qutebrowser HAS sound. But on BOTH machines, the newest firefox version doesn’t produce sound.

Also, sound IS working on both machines EXCEPT on the newest version of Firefox (89.0.1).

Have you tried Firefox 89.0.1?

stevesr0

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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Have you tried apulse firefox in a terminal?

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member ModdIt]

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I have latest firefox, at present point in time 89.0.1
had that not been the case I would not have posted to try and assist you.

I also checked sound in 19.4 and live runit Bullseye had not suddenly stopped working,
before posting. Been working with computers for a long time.

I also suggested you try starting firefox from command line with prefix apulse
and advised of possible reasons for no sound.

Thanks anticapitalista for reminding again to start with prefix from console.
On some occasions problems with permissions
can be detected by starting frefox with sudo. But that is a risk.

As sound works with other browsers you have a settings or possibly permissions problem.

There is a wealth of information in the forum with regard to sound from firefox with apulse.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by ModdIt.

[Member wildstar84]

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Here’s what I’ve done:

One time (about:config):
change: security.sandbox.content.level 3=>2
change: security.sandbox.content.syscall_whitelist “”=>”16” (“54”, if x86/32bit)!
change: security.sandbox.content.write_path_whitelist “”=>”/dev/snd/,/etc/asound.conf”

After each upgrade:

cd /usr/lib/firefox
cp libxul.so libxul.so.org
patchelf –set-rpath /usr/lib/apulse libxul.so

(I run FF under a separate, underprivileged user for security, but if you don’t, just use what’s in the double-quotes):
sudo su -c “/usr/bin/apulse /usr/bin/firefox.real 2>/dev/null &” browser

[Member stevesr0]

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Hi moddit, anticapitalista and wildstar84,

I have now tried out the 89.0.1 browser on all three of my Antix systems.

Launching via the terminal using apulse works to enable sound in the browser.

Peculiarly, in my 3rd machine which runs antix 17, the front speakers stopped working in linux when I tested them today. They DO work in Windows (dual boot), so it isn’t the hardware. I do get sound when I use an external speaker through the headphone connection, when I launch with apulse firefox (but not when I launch firefox from the terminal).

So the good news is that sound is working on all three machines with Firefox 89.0.1.

I recognize that I probably <g> don’t have an optimal setup for sound on my machines – that is an opportunity to improve.

However, at this point, I will mark this solved (as the speaker issue in the one machine is not obviously related to firefox 89.0.1).

I will repost if I have something I consider useful about this.

Thanks to all.

stevesr0

P.S. An odd thing is that when I launch firefox from the terminal – either via “apulse firefox” of just “firefox”, an error is displayed “more than 1 GPU from same vendor detected via PCI cannot deduce device”. In addition, when I launch via the terminal using “firefox”, there are errors about files in /builders/…, but I don’t HAVE a /builders directory that I can find…

• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by stevesr0.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by stevesr0.

[Member ModdIt]

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hi stevesr0, Good to hear you now have sound.

You can create a starter for firefox calling it with the apulse appended command using
the menu tool in control center.

Regarding: an error is displayed “more than 1 GPU from same vendor detected via PCI,
did you play with performance settings in Firefox, it might change that.
Another reason might be having an integrated internal and external device, i.e. a card
when one is disabled in BIOS..

You may find the front speakers are muted or volumr set very low, in alsamixergui
many of the sliders are commonly off the
visible screen area so the user needs to scroll to right.

OT: I also get following error on starting from console.
ERROR glean] Failed to initialize Glean: An I/O error occurred: Permission denied (os error 13)

Firefox Telemetry is nicely and intentionaly broken, happy about that.

[Member stevesr0]

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Hi Moddit,

Thanks for suggestions.

I really need to use apulse in my minimal install – and control centre isn’t installed in that. Openbox comes with a menu configuration tool, so this might be an opportunity to play with that!

About the GPU error message when launching firefox from the command line (same with or without using apulse in the launch command), the only about:config items I have modified are the four suggested to enable sound (security:sandbox:content… read write level and one other). Since I didn’t try launching from the command line before I modified those, I don’t know if that is the cause of the GPU error message. (The only card that is problematic is the wireless one which includes both wifi and bluetooth functions. It isn’t disabled in the BIOS but is “hardblocked” by the physical switch on the laptop.)

Never heard of firefox telemetry or glean before. Not really clear about it, but after brief look seems to be Mozilla tool for gethering info on system performance (for good or evil <g>).

Weirdly, when I booted this machine (Antix 17, yesterday no sound from speakers, sound via output from headphone jack to external speaker) TODAY, there is sound now coming through both front laptop speakers with the menu launched speaker-test.

It was rather distorted/ lots of static, but cleared up pretty much after I “messed” with alsamixer (I think zeroing the microphone was the thing that improved things). Part of the messing involved moving to the pieces not visible that you mentioned <g>, so thanks for that thought.

Today VLC will not play YouTube videos directly (using URL). This is a known bug and a lua patch on github, which I may try. This machine has version 3.0.11. My two other systems run antix 19 and have vlc version 3.0.12 which DOES play YouTube URLs.

VLC does play a test.wav file however, and is playing a youtube audio that I downloaded with youtube-dl, so no big practical issue.

Sound on linux is so much fun <g>.

stevesr0

[Moderator BobC]

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I see that the Bento antiX OpenBox respin has been updated.

https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/bento-antix-amd64-may-24th-2021/

If you haven’t looked at it, I suggest you do. Even if it isn’t your cup of tea, you might find answers to configuration issues by looking at how it’s setup.

[Member stevesr0]

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Thanks for the suggestion, BobC.

stevesr0

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