1638939 - Audio won't play with Firefox 76.0.1

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

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

Description

[Eyal Rozenberg]

I'm using Devuan GNU/Linux Beowulf (~= Debian Buster without systemd). The distribution-provided firefox-esr works fine and plays audio; its version is 68.8.0 .

When I download a 64-bit Linux binary package for FF 76.0.1 and install it, Firefox does run, and I can play video, but - the audio is muted; and if I just try to play an audio file available at some URL - there's no movement of the "slider button" from the starting position, and the timer remains at 00:00:00.

If I try to use apulse firefox, I get the following error messages:

[apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: can't get initial hw parameters for playback device "default". Error code 1 (Operation not permitted)
[apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: failed to open ALSA device. Apulse does no resampling or format conversion, leaving that task to ALSA plugins. Ensure that selected device is capable of playing a particular sample format at a particular rate. They have to be supported by either hardware directly, or by "plug" and "dmix" ALSA plugins which will perform required conversions on CPU.

Comment 1

[C.M.Chang[:chunmin]]

Can you paste the info on your about:support page?

It seems you are trying to use ALSA backend. However, Firefox only supports pulse for now.

Comment 2

[Eyal Rozenberg]

Attachment: about:support text

As requested. Extension list not included.

Comment 3

[Eyal Rozenberg]

I should say that I'm not "trying" anything. I am using my distribution's default audio setup, and Firefox is failing to communicate with it. Firefox did not fail this way in earlier versions (AFAICT - I may be mistaken), so - this is a bug.

Pulse is a problematic sound server (and not just because of its author's identity), as is discussed, for example, here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/6h2rvk/why_do_people_dislike_pulseaudio/

also, again - as a lay user, I wouldn't even know what Pulse is. The only thing I would experience is Firefox not playing audio after I install it.

Finally - if lack-of-Pulse was the problem, shouldn't the use of apulse have overcome it?

Comment 4

[C.M.Chang[:chunmin]]

Matthew, it seems we are failing to get the backend_id on apulse at least.

Comment 5

[Matthew Gregan [:kinetik]]

apulse is not supported. Does audio in Firefox work if you install PulseAudio?

Comment 6

[Eyal Rozenberg]

Matthew - I only mentioned apluse as something I tried to overcome the bug - which is that Firefox doesn't play audio, period.

Also - I'm not even sure how to start pulseaudio (even though it's installed). I tried starting it and got this:

$ start-pulseaudio-x11 
Connection failure: Connection refused
pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused

Comment 7

[Matthew Gregan [:kinetik]]

There seems to be a problem with your PulseAudio configuration or something related to it. Try following any distribution-specific PulseAudio troubleshooting steps appropriate for your system (https://wiki.debian.org/PulseAudio may help if there's nothing specific to your distribution).

Comment 8

[Eyal Rozenberg]

Matthew: I'm not using PulseAudio. And there is no problem - because audio works with all applications, including earlier versions of Firefox, and the current version of Chromium. Firefox is the only application with any problems.

Comment 9

[Matthew Gregan [:kinetik]]

PulseAudio has been required since Firefox 52. Your distribution-provided Firefox 68 ESR may be patched to use a different audio backend, which would be supported by the distribution. If this is the case, there may be a Firefox 76 build available from the same location with the necessary patches and support.

Comment 10

[Eyal Rozenberg]

Audio started working with apulse again after I removed pulseaudio as a package. Let's leave this as invalid for now, although - I really don't like the dependence on pulseaudio.