Firefox steals alsa audio

[Danny Yee]

Alan Cox wrote:
> Firefox should be using pulseaudio - do you have various plugins and the
> like loaded into it (flash, shlockwave, realplayer etc ?)

I have the flash-plugin package from Adobe installed, but no shockwave
or realplayer plugins... or maybe I do.

Looking at /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins, there seems to be an lot of
junk installed:

gecko-mediaplayer-dvx.so
gecko-mediaplayer-qt.so
gecko-mediaplayer-rm.so
gecko-mediaplayer.so
gecko-mediaplayer-wmp.so
libflashplayer.so
libjavaplugin.so
librhythmbox-itms-detection-plugin.so
libtotem-cone-plugin.so
libtotem-gmp-plugin.so
libtotem-mully-plugin.so
libtotem-narrowspace-plugin.so
mozplugger.so
nphelix.so
nphelix.xpt
nsdejavu.so

And those nphelix files are symlinks to a realplayer install in
/usr/local!  Remove those and the totem-mozplugin and gecko-mediaplayer
RPMs and restart firefox... no sound from it at all now, and nothing
in pavucontrol.  But vlc (via pulseaudio) is working again.

# lsof /dev/snd/*
pulseaudi 12591 danny  mem    CHR 116,24          4779 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
pulseaudi 12591 danny  mem    CHR 116,16          4773 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
pulseaudi 12591 danny   12u   CHR  116,0      0t0 4797 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 12591 danny   22u   CHR 116,16      0t0 4773 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
pulseaudi 12591 danny   23u   CHR  116,0      0t0 4797 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 12591 danny   24u   CHR  116,0      0t0 4797 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 12591 danny   29u   CHR 116,24      0t0 4779 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
pulseaudi 12591 danny   31u   CHR  116,0      0t0 4797 /dev/snd/controlC0

Kill pulseaudio, restart firefox, youtube video now works
# lsof /dev/snd/*
firefox 18501 danny  mem    CHR 116,16          4773 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
firefox 18501 danny   80u   CHR 116,16      0t0 4773 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p

Close youtube tab, vlc now works, and pulseaudio has the sound devices.

Quit vlc, restart youtube, no sound -- pulseaudio still has the
sound devices.

kill pulseaudio, then quit/restart youtube crashes firefox, but it
has sound on restart.

Sometimes I can have pulseaudio running and firefox/youtube working:
  pulseaudi 18870 danny  mem    CHR 116,17          4755 /dev/snd/pcmC0D1p
  pulseaudi 18870 danny   12u   CHR  116,0      0t0 4797 /dev/snd/controlC0
  pulseaudi 18870 danny   22u   CHR 116,17      0t0 4755 /dev/snd/pcmC0D1p
  pulseaudi 18870 danny   24u   CHR  116,0      0t0 4797 /dev/snd/controlC0
  pulseaudi 18870 danny   31u   CHR  116,0      0t0 4797 /dev/snd/controlC0
  firefox   18948 danny  mem    CHR 116,16          4773 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
  firefox   18948 danny   82u   CHR 116,16      0t0 4773 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
but vlc produces no sound in this state.

I don't think I've ever seen Firefox as a source or client in
pavucontrol or paman.

Danny.