No sound in Firefox portable (solved)

[Governor]

No sound in Firefox portable. any suggestions?

[Chelsea80]

@ Governor

As a suggestion -

It would be most helpful to those in the know (not me) if :

The Puppy version you are running is given -

The Firefox Portable version you are running is given -

What, if anything, you have tried to resolve your problem -

Best regards

Chelsea80

[Governor]

Firefox v. 102.12.0esr (64-bit)

Code: Select all

Distro: fossapup64 9.5
Window Manager: JWM v2.4.0
Desktop Start: xwin jwm

Development:
 Bash: 5.0.17
 Geany: 1.35
 Gtkdialog: 0.8.4
 Perl: 5.30.0
 Python: 
 Yad: 0.42.1 (GTK+ 2.24.32)
 --
 busybox: 1.31.0
 dhcpcd: 6.6.2
 Glibc: 2.31
 OpenSSL: 1.1.1f  31 Mar 2020, built on: Mon Apr 20 11:53:50 2020 UTC
 wpa_supplicant: 2.9

On the taskbar speaker icon, I tried: "Settings", "Mixer", and "Multiple Sound Card Wizard". Sound works in Audacity and in downloaded videos.
I can't find the problem. Could it be the new FF update?

@ Governor

As a suggestion -

It would be most helpful to those in the know (not me) if :

The Puppy version you are running is given -

The Firefox Portable version you are running is given -

What, if anything, you have tried to resolve your problem -

Best regards

Chelsea80

[ozsouth]

@Governor try running in a terminal: apulse firefox
(assuming 'firefox' is the name of your executable & it is in /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin).
If that fails, could also try: apulse defaultbrowser
Apulse is the pseudo pulseaudio for alsa sound system.

[Governor]

The sound began working again. I guess I got lucky.
Thanks!

@Governor try running in a terminal: apulse firefox
(assuming 'firefox' is the name of your executable & it is in /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin).
If that fails, could also try: apulse defaultbrowser
Apulse is the pseudo pulseaudio for alsa sound system.

[Sky Aisling]

Hello,
@Governor @mikeslr @ozsouth
I too am not able to get sound to work in Firefox 102.12.0esr(64)
taken from firefox64-esr.sfs version 102.12.0 Updatable
Post by mikeslr » Mon Jun 12, 2023 3:28 pm

I am using distro fossapup64 9.6 (x86_64)
The machine is a Dell Inspiron N7010

When I enter code apulse firefox in terminal, I get the following message:

F96-CE no sound Firefox1(1).png (12.44 KiB) Viewed 1111 times

Please advise as to correct code to enter into terminal.
Thank you in advance for any assistance you can give.
Sky

[mikeslr]

....When I enter code apulse firefox in terminal, I get the following message:F96-CE no sound Firefox1(1).png
Please advise as to correct code to enter into terminal.
Thank you in advance for any assistance you can give.
Sky

It gets worse than that. The SFS I published is just a repackaged, updated version of Mikewalsh's firefox-esr-portable. apulse-libraries are included in the 'extralibs' folder which are called when the ff or ffs script is used to start the application. It works fine under Bionicpup64, fossapup64-9.5 and fossapup64-low.

Having read your post I booted into fossapup64-9.6 and tried it. 9.6 uses pulse-audio which defaults to using ladspa plugins. On my computers, ladspa plugins can't be found, but I can sometimes configure pulse-audio to use the computer's built-in system to get sound. The SFS I published didn't offer that option. So I tried MIkewalsh's portable which (IIRC) I hadn't updated. It did offer that option and sound was generated.

To confirm that it was an update problem --i.e., sometimes firefox's updates cause problems-- I booted up Bookwormpup64 which also employs pulse-audio. [Edit, Bookworm uses pipe-wire]*.Neither the SFS nor Mikewalsh's portable generate sound.

I hate pulse-audio. One of the reasons I published Bionicpup-Revival was that it hasn't been contaminated by it. Perhaps in time Puppy devs will reach a point where something as reliable as the Alsa-retrovol combination provides whenever sound is required and without regard to what computer is in use. Until then, I'll continue to rely on updated versions of Bionicpup64 and fossapup64-9.5 for my daily use.

Suggest you try MikeWalsh's portable, viewtopic.php?p=37559#p37559. Don't update it.

-=-=--
I kind-a recall reading that it used pipe-wire; which --on checking I I read it right-- is the case. At any rate, it doesn't use the alsa-retrovol-multiple-soundcard-wizard combination. See my next post.

[mikewalsh]

@mikeslr / @Sky Aisling / @all :-

I did modify the FF-portable a wee bit. I added a sub-directory into the 'extralibs' directory, containing a subset of what's in the main one.....then the launcher got a couple of "if.....then" statements to test for the presence of pulseaudio on the system.

If PA is detected, one set of deps is used; if PA is NOT present, the other set are used. It's a bit of a "hack", but it DOES seem to work. Mostly, anyway. Except for jrb's Upup Jammy64, which I haven't yet figured-out a workaround for.

(I'm not certain if I've uploaded the modified build. I'll check for that, and remedy the situation if necessary.)

EDIT:- Yup, they ARE uploaded.

T'other Mike.

[mikeslr]

The post here, https://www.forum.puppylinux.com/viewto ... 931#p91931 suggests 'a step forward' in resolving the continuing problem with generating sound under pulse-audio and pipe-wire.

[Sky Aisling]

@mikeslr @mikewalsh

So, maybe the solution is to download and use Fossapup64-9.5?

Sky

[mikewalsh]

@Sky Aisling :-

Certainly, if you use the "original" Fossapup64, everything will still work the way it has done for years, because FP64 9.5 uses Retrovol & ALSA, the way Puppies have done for a long while.

But dimkr's definitely on the right track. Much as I, personally, dislike PulseAudio, the Puppy community is going to HAVE to come to grips with it and make the transition. Sooner rather than later, too, because everybody else in the wider Linux community has been using PulseAudio for over a decade.....and everything is now written & coded to expect it being present on the system.

(*shrug*)

Mike.

[dimkr]

AFAIK all major browsers support PulseAudio (and PipeWire, natively or via pipewire-pulse) for years, and the browser packages where audio doesn't work in a Puppy with either of those try to run browser x using apulse x, and apulse is not installed.

Such packages should work fine in a Puppy built from woof-CE not older than ~6 months, because nowadays woof-CE adds a apulse stub when building a Puppy with PulseAudio or PipeWire, to make the old packages that target bionic64 and fossa64 "just work" in a newer Puppy without apulse.

In addition, some Puppy releases ship with misconfigured PulseAudio/PipeWire. Both have ALSA plugins and can be configured as the default ALSA output. When this is done correctly (same as as in Debian or Ubuntu, via 99-pipewire-default.conf and friends), even "pure ALSA" applications that don't talk to PulseAudio or PipeWire directly, work just fine. This is why deadbeef works just fine against PulseAudio or PipeWire, if built with all output plugins except ALSA disabled and everything is configured properly.

Also, some Puppy releases run PulseAudio as root, so applications running as spot (many browser packages) can't talk to it to play sound. Everything should work fine in a Puppy built with recent woof-CE, because ~/.xinitrc runs as single instance of PulseAudio or PipeWire as spot, and forces root to use it too.

[Sky Aisling]

@mikewalsh @mikeslr

Hello Mike Walsh,
Mikeslr suggests trying your download of Firefox portable.

Suggest you try MikeWalsh's portable, viewtopic.php?p=37559#p37559. Don't update it.

https://mega.nz/folder/jepQRTRL#NomNB30HIUuC2CDYP7hTrA

@mikewalsh
Which download 64bit do I take standard or zip?

Again, I am using fossapup64 9.6 (x86_64) on Dell Inspiron N7010 frugal install.

Thank you advance,
Sky

[mikewalsh]

@Sky Aisling :-

Go for the 'standard' download. The 'zipped' one is more trouble than it's worth..!

(Google Drive is the same, but with them it's a nightmare. You get the option for a compressed download, but whatever it is they do to it makes it impossible to unzip by normal means...)

I found this out quite some time ago......and haven't bothered with the zipped download since.

----------------------

As I stated above, the portable has been modified to make a simple check for the presence of PA on the system. If it's present, one set of deps gets used.....if not, then the others come into play. It's a bit of a 'hack', TBH, but it seems to work.

Let us know how you get on, please.

Mike.

[Sky Aisling]

@mikewalsh

Mike, is this right? I punch a 'standard' download but the site says I'm downloading a .zip file.

F96-CE no sound Firefox2.png (25.23 KiB) Viewed 1065 times

F96-CE no sound Firefox3.png (8.29 KiB) Viewed 1065 times

Sky

[Geoffrey]

Suggest you try MikeWalsh's portable, viewtopic.php?p=37559#p37559. Don't update it.

To make Firefox not update, in the "firefox" directory make a folder called "distribution", inside of that a file called "policies.json", with this.

Code: Select all

{
"policies": 
   {
     "DisableAppUpdate": true
    }
}

[mikewalsh]

@Sky Aisling :-

Mike, is this right? I punch a 'standard' download but the site says I'm downloading a .zip file.

Umm; TBH, I'm not at all certain. All I can tell you is that if I request a 'standard' download, that's what I get......but then, I AM the a/c owner. You, on the other hand, are accessing the file as a guest with temporary permissions, so.....I just don't know.

I've no idea what policies MEGA may have in place for "visitors" (as opposed to "residents"....if you see what I mean! )

-----------------------------------------------

The main niggle I have with the zipped download is quite simple. The file was uploaded in zipped format to start with.....but MEGA then takes an already-zipped file, and zips it again. Thus, you need to perform a double-unzip in order to access the original file.

I know some folks prefer to do things this way, to save on perhaps limited bandwidth.....but frankly, once compression has initially been employed, a second round doesn't really gain much extra,...

(*shrug*)

Mike.

[mikeslr]

Downloading from Mikewalsh's mega.nz folder.

Right-Click the tar.gz on the left. A Gui will open offering "Download". Click the > pointer. Click the Standard Choice which then appears.