1426679 - Firefox 58.0b12 video playback ok, but no audio (linux)

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1434392

(Core :: Audio/Video: cubeb, defect, P2)

Description

[loedur]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:57.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/57.0
Build ID: 20171128222554

Steps to reproduce:

download firefox-58.0b12.tar.bz2
unpack with tar xvf firefox-58.0b12.tar.bz2
open a terminal window (lxterminal)
start firefox from the terminal
go to page https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/task/joy-of-coding/
and click on the button [Watch the video]

On the terminal window now I get the following error messages:
---
[Child 21892, MediaPlayback #3] WARNING: 7f1b6f26b400 Can't get cubeb context!: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 358
[Child 21892, MediaPlayback #3] WARNING: Decoder=7f1b64455800 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3642
[Child 21892, MediaPlayback #1] WARNING: 7f1b5958c280 Can't get cubeb context!: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 358
[Child 21892, MediaPlayback #1] WARNING: Decoder=7f1b64455800 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3642
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #3] WARNING: 7fcb4bb1b580 Can't get cubeb context!: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 358
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #3] WARNING: Decoder=7fcb49903600 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3642
[Child 22092, MediaPlayback #1] WARNING: 7f83d03d1e80 Can't get cubeb context!: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 358
[Child 22092, MediaPlayback #1] WARNING: Decoder=7f83d3f8e400 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3642
 [Child 22937, MediaPlayback #1] WARNING: 7f9c3ef2e880 Can't get cubeb context!: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 358
[Child 22937, MediaPlayback #1] WARNING: Decoder=7f9c3f04e400 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3642
 [Child 21955, MediaPlayback #9] WARNING: 7fcb3f31c040 Can't get cubeb context!: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 358
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #9] WARNING: Decoder=7fcb3a409000 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3642
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #9] WARNING: Decoder=7fcb3a409000 Decode error: NS_ERROR_DOM_MEDIA_MEDIASINK_ERR (0x806e000b) - OnMediaSinkAudioError: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3365
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #10] WARNING: 7fcb4a088f40 Can't get cubeb context!: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 358
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #10] WARNING: Decoder=7fcb47fae400 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3642
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #10] WARNING: Decoder=7fcb47fae400 Decode error: NS_ERROR_DOM_MEDIA_MEDIASINK_ERR (0x806e000b) - OnMediaSinkAudioError: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3365
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #8] WARNING: 7fcb3742bf40 Can't get cubeb context!: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 358
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #8] WARNING: Decoder=7fcb3a407400 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3642
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #8] WARNING: Decoder=7fcb3a407400 Decode error: NS_ERROR_DOM_MEDIA_MEDIASINK_ERR (0x806e000b) - OnMediaSinkAudioError: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3365
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #8] WARNING: 7fcb36402dc0 Can't get cubeb context!: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 358
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #8] WARNING: Decoder=7fcb36268400 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3642
[Child 21955, MediaPlayback #8] WARNING: Decoder=7fcb36268400 Decode error: NS_ERROR_DOM_MEDIA_MEDIASINK_ERR (0x806e000b) - OnMediaSinkAudioError: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3365
[Child 22092, MediaPlayback #9] WARNING: 7f83d7ff9ac0 Can't get cubeb context!: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 358
[Child 22092, MediaPlayback #9] WARNING: Decoder=7f83d3f8e400 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3642
---



Actual results:

Video plays fine but no audio


Expected results:

Video plays fine with audio

Comment 1

[ashwinphadke12]

Many have the no audio issue on Firefox, here are the steps you can take to solve it

1) Firefox now does not  support NPAPI , make sure you have properly installed the flash player.
2) Many a time Pulse Audio plugin is not properly configured on Linux distros, so you need to make sure that Pulse Audio works properly for your distro, also update it to the latest version, you might've seen the prompt when audio does not play.
3) See if any other plugins are conflicting with Firefox and disable them and retry again.
4) Does the audio work in other browsers and not working only in Firefox, just check that and if that is the case do a fresh install from your distros package management.

Comment 2

[Blake Wu [:bwu][:blakewu]]

It looks like a cubeb bugs?

Comment 3

[C.M.Chang[:chunmin]]

The default FF Linux works only with PulseAudio. Do you have pulseaudio on the computer? If not, please install it and try opening a video again.

Comment 4

[zlice]

4.14.10-gentoo-r1 #1 SMP Mon Jan 1 21:08:14 MST 2018 x86_64 Intel(R)

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:58.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/58.0

firefox 57.0.4 audio works (using apulse)
firefox 58.0   same error as OP

Comment 5

[Andreas Pehrson [:pehrsons]]

From the error log and some code tracing it looks like it's getting the cubeb context that fails [1].

Without knowing more I'd guess there could have been changes to audio remoting in 58. Dan, do you know?
Do we have a way to disable it by prefs so the affected users can confirm?


[1] https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/062e1cf551f5bf3f0af33671b818f75a55ac497b/dom/media/CubebUtils.cpp#436

Comment 6

[Matthew Gregan [:kinetik]]

(In reply to Andreas Pehrson [:pehrsons] from comment #5)
> From the error log and some code tracing it looks like it's getting the
> cubeb context that fails [1].
> 
> Without knowing more I'd guess there could have been changes to audio
> remoting in 58. Dan, do you know?

Audio remoting is nightly only.

> Do we have a way to disable it by prefs so the affected users can confirm?

media.cubeb.sandbox = false, but not relevant for 58 since it's not enabled in anything but nightly builds.

Comment 7

[Matthew Gregan [:kinetik]]

(In reply to zlice from comment #4)
> 4.14.10-gentoo-r1 #1 SMP Mon Jan 1 21:08:14 MST 2018 x86_64 Intel(R)
> 
> Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:58.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/58.0
> 
> firefox 57.0.4 audio works (using apulse)
> firefox 58.0   same error as OP

apulse requires disabling aspects of the sandbox in 58 (https://github.com/i-rinat/apulse#firefox-58-tabs-crashing-when-trying-to-play-audio), have you tried that?

Comment 8

[zlice]

(In reply to Matthew Gregan [:kinetik] from comment #7)
> apulse requires disabling aspects of the sandbox in 58
> (https://github.com/i-rinat/apulse#firefox-58-tabs-crashing-when-trying-to-
> play-audio), have you tried that?

yes, i already had it in there. i believe i needed that when i first needed apulse.

Comment 9

[mark]

Apparently I now have the same problem on 59b4:

>[Child 15109, MediaPlayback #1] WARNING: 7fe86034dc40 Can't get cubeb context!: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 358
>[Child 15109, MediaPlayback #1] WARNING: Decoder=7fe86072af20 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3755

>###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error: PClientSourceOp::Msg___delete__ Route error: message sent to unknown actor ID

The ..cubeb.. = false suggestion from above did not help. PulseAudio is installed (playing radio right now) and libpulse.so should be available via LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

Comment 10

[mark]

Apparently I can also see my output devices. Their actual names and all channels show up for the pulse-rust backend.

Comment 11

[mark]

^^ in the about:support dialog.

Comment 12

[mark]

This problem does not occur in the nightly build.

Comment 13

[u480271]

(In reply to mark from comment #12)
> This problem does not occur in the nightly build.

Nightly will be using audio remoting. Does cubeb init fail is you set `media.cubeb.sandbox` to false?
Which backend does `about:support` report is being used in Firefox 58? If it's `pulse-rust`, does the problem go away if you set `media.cubeb.backend` pref to pulse?

Comment 14

[jakub]

Gentoo user here had to go back to 57.0.4 where audio works just fine.

fork(): Operation not permitted
[Child 21196, MediaPlayback #1] WARNING: 7f45186621c0 Can't get cubeb context!: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 358
[Child 21196, MediaPlayback #1] WARNING: Decoder=7f4529ba9c00 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3642
[Child 21196, MediaPlayback #1] WARNING: Decoder=7f4529ba9c00 Decode error: NS_ERROR_DOM_MEDIA_MEDIASINK_ERR (0x806e000b) - OnMediaSinkAudioError: file /builds/worker/workspace/build/src/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3365

Comment 15

[Gunstick]

I was able to provoke this error by doing an ssh -X to another user on the same machine. This worked some time ago without problems but suddenly stopped (system patching or config issue, I don't know)

Sound worked again by setting the following environment:

export MOZ_DISABLE_CONTENT_SANDBOX=1

this was on xubuntu 17.10 and firefox 59.0.1

I would not advise keeping this setting. But how to make this more fine grained?

Comment 16

[Andreas Pehrson [:pehrsons]]

Could either of you who's having issues answer Dan's question in comment 13? Then we know whether to rule out the pulse-rust backend.

In particular this:
> Which backend does `about:support` report is being used in Firefox 58?
> If it's `pulse-rust`, does the problem go away if you set `media.cubeb.backend` pref to pulse?

Thanks!

Comment 17

[jakub]

Andreasand Dan

I eventually solved the problem by making sure pulse is always started before I start up firefox.

I added this to my bashrc (because gentoo does not by default run system wide pulse daemon)

# start pulse audio
/usr/bin/pulseaudio --check
PA_CHECK="$?"
if [ $PA_CHECK -ne "0" ]; then
    /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start -v
fi

Ever since I had no problems with either the 58.x or 59.x versions of Firefox.

I did not mess with the cubeb config - and just left whatever the defaults were.

My media backend in my 59.0.2 is pulse-rust.

I can only speculate that 57.0.4 was able to get by without expecting the pulse process to be running and was able to start it up by itself (or bypass it) but that is just a guess.

Cheers

Comment 18

[petr.pisar]

I started to experience this issue with Firefox (Gentoo build) 59.0.2, 58.0.1 was fine.

If pulseaudio daemon is not running, Firefox will report the cubeb context error and no sound can be heard. Then if I visit config:support page, firefox will start the daemon and the audio backend is reported as pulse-rust and if I unpause a video in a different tab, the sound becomes audible.

Setting media.cubeb.backend does not help.

Starting Firefox with MOZ_DISABLE_CONTENT_SANDBOX=1 environment variable helps.

Comment 19

[Andreas Pehrson [:pehrsons]]

Dan, is this enough info for you to investigate further?

Comment 20

[Matthew Gregan [:kinetik]]

Issues starting the PulseAudio server on-demand from Firefox are fixed by bug 1434392 and bug 1443612.

Comment 21

[petr.pisar]

Thanks for the pointer. I confirm that the three patches linked in comment #7 in bug #1443612 fixes spawning PulseAudio server for me.

Comment 22

[Byron Campen [:bwc]]

This seems confirmed to me.

Comment 23

[Byron Campen [:bwc]]

Does this work for you now?

Comment 24

[Andreas Pehrson [:pehrsons]]

I will take the lack of confirmation here as a confirmation that it works. If new problems arise, please open a new bug. Closing as dupe of bug 1434392.