Re: [gentoo-user] html5 no longer working in firefox

[Marc Joliet <marcec@gmx.de>]

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Am Tue, 13 Jan 2015 17:25:36 -0500
schrieb covici@ccs.covici.com:

> Marc Joliet <marcec@gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> > Am Tue, 13 Jan 2015 15:30:12 -0500
> > schrieb covici@ccs.covici.com:
> > 
> > > Marc Joliet <marcec@gmx.de> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Am Tue, 16 Dec 2014 15:09:14 -0500
> > > > schrieb covici@ccs.covici.com:
> > > > 
> > > > > Hi.  I have found since my latest update that html5 is getting no audio
> > > > > in firefox.  I am not sure what libraries are involved in this -- I
> > > > > downgraded firefox to 31.3.0, compiled with debug, but no error
> > > > > messages.  It worked in early November so it must have been some update,
> > > > > but I can't figure out which -- how can I even troubleshoot such a
> > > > > thing.  I am using gnome 3.14.x, so I have the gnome overlay and the
> > > > > "unstable" version of gentoo.  I compile with a use flag of -pulseaudio,
> > > > > so its mostly Alsa unless gnome says otherwise.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Any ideas would be appreciated.
> > > > 
> > > > I don't know what exactly you mean with "no audio", but I had problems with
> > > > MP3 files not decoding anymore around the same time as you did, despite
> > > > installing Firefox with USE=gstreamer. I finally decided to debug it again
> > > > today, and had success after installing gst-plugins-mad (although I would be
> > > > surprised if gst-plugins-lame did not work, either). Now SoundCloud works again!

Just for the record, since you use Firefox 31.3.0, I don't think this is it,
because it depends on gst-plugins-meta, which pulls in all relevant gstreamer
plug-ins depending on your USE flags.  The problem I was referring to above is
limited to Firefox 35.0.

[...]
> > > I will try the control-shift-i -- does firefox have to be
> > > compiled with debug to do this?
> > 
> > No, you don't need to install firefox with FEATURES=debug.  The debug console
> > is part of Firefox's built-in set of web developer tools.
> 
> hmmm, for the moment, I am assuming that the video is visible, but no
> sound, as I am "visually impaired" this is an assumption.  But the
> player loads and the time of the video keeps moving so this assumption
> may be correct.

That's the sort of thing I was thinking of :) .  From what you say, I agree
with your assumption that playback itself works.  Although, I vaguely recall
that Firefox can play videos without sound if only the audio codec is
unsupported (or maybe I'm thinking about playback without soundcard access,
like when I have JACK running), so it could *potentially* still be a codec
problem, despite what I wrote above. You should be able to verify that with the
debug console that I already mentioned.

Now as to why you don't here anything, I can only, at best, make educated
guesses.  Alas, I use pulseaudio, so I don't have any experience with Firefox
with USE=-pulseaudio. My only ideas at the moment are:

- Verify that sound in other applications works, if you haven't already.

- Double-check the volume settings.

- Verify that Firefox can actually access the soundcard (though this should not
  be a problem if you use the ALSA dmix plug-in, which is the default, I think).

- In the event that it might be a codec problem after all, verify your USE flags
  (e.g., check for mp3, ogg, or whatever is failing).

I don't think that there are any audio settings in Firefox itself, though I
could be mistaken (I did look in about:config, but still couldn't find
anything).

HTH
-- 
Marc Joliet
--
"People who think they know everything really annoy those of us who know we
don't" - Bjarne Stroustrup

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