1627325 - Very low sound volume

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1631448

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

Description

[Barnet Wagman]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:74.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/74.0

Steps to reproduce:

Tried many times. Checked config volume variables (all at max). Checked volume settings in websites (when volume controls exist). Tested with other browsers - sounds works correctly with Firefox Quantum 68.60esr and Chromium Version 80.0.3987.132

Actual results:

After a Firefox upgrade several months ago, sound was very low, really unusable. This is true for all websites I regularly use.

Upgrading to the most recent version of Firefox does not fix the problem.

Current versions: Firefox 7.4.1 on debian 10 (buster).

Please note that this problem does NOT occur with other browsers, including older versions of versions of Firefox. Specifically, sound is is fine with Firefox Quantum 68.60esr and Chromium Version 80.0.3987.132

Expected results:

Volume should be at a usable level.

Comment 1

[Andre Klapper]

Which desktop environment is this about?

Comment 2

[Barnet Wagman]

I do not use a desktop environment. Here's a list of all installed software that might be relevant:

• debian 10 (buster) minimal installation
• xorg
• openbox
• lightdm
• alsa-utils

Comment 3

[Alastor Wu [:alwu]]

Is it possible related with our new Rust audio backend?

Comment 4

[Barnet Wagman]

Good question. When was Rust added? Can you think of any way I can test this?

Comment 5

[Alastor Wu [:alwu]]

Hi, Paul,
Is there any way to switch back the old audio backend in order to verify this issue?
Thank you.

Comment 6

[Alex Chronopoulos [:achronop]]

There is a pref that can be used to control the backend. You can open about:config add a new perf with name media.cubeb.backend with the string pulse and restart Firefox Nightly. If you want to verify that the switch took place, open about:support and check that the Audio Backend in Media section is pulse instead of pulse-rust.

However, since this is a Linux case, the pulse-rust backend has been around for some time now. Also, the old c-api pulse implementation has been deprecated for some time now and the rust implementation has started diverging from it. It would be a surprise if switching the backend affects this issue.

In addition to the above can you please add the pavucontrol tool and check the volume of Firefox application in there. In general, have you made any change in PulseAudio setup?

Finally, since the problem started after an upgrade, would be possible to run the mozregression tool and find the patch that broke it?

Comment 7

[C.M.Chang[:chunmin]]

Sorry, miss this NI.

I would not guess it's caused by the pulse-rust backend. It has been tested for a while since FF 60 (bug 1440538). The comment 0 says FF68 is fine so the problem should be in somewhere else. The cause may be something related to bug 1422637.

(In reply to Alex Chronopoulos [:achronop] from comment #6)

In addition to the above can you please add the pavucontrol tool and check the volume of Firefox application in there. In general, have you made any change in PulseAudio setup?

Finally, since the problem started after an upgrade, would be possible to run the mozregression tool and find the patch that broke it?

Barnet,

I was wondering if you could use mozregression to help us to narrow down the range of the cause, and check if you made any changes in the PulseAudio settings.

Comment 8

[C.M.Chang[:chunmin]]

Barnet,

we've worked out a volume issue on Linux in bug 1631448. Would you mind checking if this is solved in Firefox Nightly?

Comment 9

[Barnet Wagman]

Yes it is. I just installed Version 77.0a1 (2020-04-21) (64-bit) and the volume is now back to normal. Thanks.

Barnet

Comment 10

[C.M.Chang[:chunmin]]

This might happen again since we back out the fix done in bug 1631448 in bug 1632093. But the fix will be done in bug 1422637.