181369 - Loading Flash page while linux audio is in use hangs mozilla until audio application releases sound device.

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 58339

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect)

Description

[Chris]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.1) Gecko/20020827
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.1) Gecko/20020827

Using Redhat 8.0, with both Mozilla 1.0.1 and 1.1, once I have the Flash plugin
installed, any time I load a web page with Flash content (whether or not that
flash has any audio content), if I have any audio program running, whether it is
using the OSS driver, ESD, or Arts, Mozilla hangs until the audio program
releases the sound device.  When I switch desktops (using KDE 3) to the desktop
the hanging mozilla is on, whatever was on the same position on the screen on
the previous desktop will be shown in the mozilla windows, and the only
indication that the mozilla window is there is the window manager decorations. 
A couple of seconds after pausing whatever audio program I'm using (xine, xmms,
noatun, etc) mozilla picks back up just fine.  I can then resume playing the
audio with no trouble.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install flash plugin. (I have 5.0 r51)
2. Start up an audio program, like xmms, and start playing music.
3. With music playing, open www.macromedia.com, or any other page with flash
content.  Mozilla will do nothing.  To confirm that it has frozen, switch to
another desktop and switch back.
4. Pause audio program, and watch mozilla work again.

Actual Results:  
Mozilla hung when I went to macromedia.com.  Mozilla resumed normal operation
after I paused xmms.

Expected Results:  
Mozilla should have timed out or forked the plug-in handler so as to not stall
the entire browser (and mail as well) when the plug-in hung.

I'm using the default rpm install on redhat 8 with KDE 3.  I do not have Java
installed, or really much of anything beyond the stock redhat 8.0 aside from
having upgraded to Mozilla 1.1 (and the bug was present in 1.0.1 as well)

I found the solution through some experimentation, but for a long time, my only
way out of this was to kill Mozilla, which was very frustrating, and I'm sure
would be even more so to someone who couldn't figure out the cause.

Comment 1

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

The Flash 6 plugin doesn't have this issue, btw.... Running plugins
out-of-process is sorta hard when they need to be scriptable and composite
correctly with the painting of the page (translucency, etc).  It may be doable
via an rpc mechanism, and that's being looked into...

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 58339 ***

Comment 2

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

v please read the bugzilla helper before you proceed.
YOu can see excatly this bug in the iframe (frequently reported bugs)