[SOLVED] No sound in tor browser on Debian 10 with ALSA

938442 · 02-26-2020, 12:24 PM

Hello,

I struggle to get sound working in tor browser. I have read this post: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ly-4175663745/
and this one
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/29360

And there are some solutions to this problem according to the first post

Quote:

1. Using older version of Pulseaudio i.e. 12.2
2. Running Pulseaudio in system wide mode.
3. Copying Pulseaudio auth cookie from your HOME to Tor-Browser/Browser directory.
4. Disabling auth-cookie authentication for module-esound-protocol- (parameter auth-cookie-enabled)

The problem is that I don't use pulseaudio, so I don't have those pulseaudio related files - I use ALSA. Sound in firefox works, so pulseaudio is not necessary for working sound.

Output from running tor-browser with --verbose in terminal when trying to play sound:

Code:

[Child 39741, MediaPlayback #3] WARNING: 7f05cf4fb390 OpenCubeb() failed to init cubeb: file /var/tmp/build/firefox-869854aeea80/dom/media/AudioStream.cpp, line 382
[Child 39741, MediaPlayback #3] WARNING: Decoder=7f05d2e67c00 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /var/tmp/build/firefox-869854aeea80/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3639

I tried with apulse, i get the message above but also this:

Code:

ALSA lib pcm_direct.c:1966:(snd1_pcm_direct_parse_open_conf) The field ipc_gid must be a valid group (create group audio)
[apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: can't open playback device "default". Error code -22 (Invalid argument)
[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.

I also tried tweaking sandbox settings in about:config, didn't work.

I found ~/.config/pulse folder (although I have no idea what it is) tried copying it to tor browser fake home directory (into .config) It didn't work.

Any idea how to get sound working with ALSA in tor browser without installing pulseaudio?

the trooper · 02-26-2020, 05:49 PM

Code:

ALSA lib pcm_direct.c:1966:(snd1_pcm_direct_parse_open_conf) The field ipc_gid must be a valid group (create group audio)

Have you created group audio?.

938442 · 02-27-2020, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the trooper

Code:

ALSA lib pcm_direct.c:1966:(snd1_pcm_direct_parse_open_conf) The field ipc_gid must be a valid group (create group audio)

Have you created group audio?.

Actually, it was already there. I am part of it according to groups command.

rokytnji · 02-27-2020, 04:08 PM

Maybe?

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ly-4175663745/

938442 · 02-28-2020, 08:58 AM

I wrote that I have read this post in the beginning. They list fixes for Pulseaudio which I don't use. My question is how to get working sound in tor browser without using pulseaudio as sound in firefox works with alsa only.

the trooper · 02-28-2020, 12:41 PM

Are you using the Debian Tor package?.
You could try using theirs: https://support.torproject.org/apt/

Failing that you may have to install Pulseaudio if that's the only way people have got it working.

Quote:

sound in firefox works with alsa only

Works for me using Pulseaudio.

938442 · 02-28-2020, 03:41 PM

Thanks, I will try Tor repository. I was not clear with alsa and firefox, what I meant was that I only have alsa and sound in firefox works, so firefox does not require pulseaudio.

the trooper · 02-28-2020, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 938442

Thanks, I will try Tor repository. I was not clear with alsa and firefox, what I meant was that I only have alsa and sound in firefox works, so firefox does not require pulseaudio.

Purge the Debian package first.......

938442 · 02-28-2020, 04:45 PM

Of course I purged it first, have no fear. In fact, instructions you linked provide me tor package, not full tor browser. I don't think there is an additional repository from tor project for full browser. That's what their tar package is for. I downloaded it but it doesn't fix my issue. Maybe there is a solution, but no one bothered to try because they use pulseaudio or it just works for them with alsa (like the person who installed it on arch from post that i linked - just works with alsa only for him).

the trooper · 02-28-2020, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 938442

Of course I purged it first, have no fear. In fact, instructions you linked provide me tor package, not full tor browser. I don't think there is an additional repository from tor project for full browser. That's what their tar package is for. I downloaded it but it doesn't fix my issue. Maybe there is a solution, but no one bothered to try because they use pulseaudio or it just works for them with alsa (like the person who installed it on arch from post that i linked - just works with alsa only for him).

Okay,you could try contacting Tor directly:

Contact

I'm out of ideas. Please post the solution here if you find it.
Good luck.

aus9 · 02-28-2020, 09:02 PM

Quote:

I'm out of ideas

I might be too....but here goes.

I normally run FF from unpack on a distro debian based =MX with PA running.
without doing anything fancy

https://html5test.com/

MY FF running from unpack gives me total of 508 with audio 25 streaming 5.

####################

I downloaded and installed the tor version of FF.

I wanted to duplicate your alsa only experience.....so I ensured I daemonzied PA and then killed it with home configs to prevent autospawn.

YT test video sound no workee.....which is what I expected because there have been a number of posts at various forums saying FF now depends on PA.

html5 test gave me 406 / 20 / 5

######################

so my questions are:

1) Where exactly did you get your FF from?
b) if not sure...but its from Debian....not from Mozilla....post the contents of your apt debian.list please
2) what is its current version number?
3) Can you re-confirm you have no PA installed or....
4) Can you confirm if PA is installed....its truly not running please.

Below you can see that most distros need PA dev files installed to build it.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/...ld_preparation

(for Debian)
# the rust compiler
aptitude install rustc

# the rust package manager
aptitude install cargo

# the required (old) version of autoconf
aptitude install autoconf2.13

# the headers of important libs
aptitude install libgtk-2-dev
aptitude install libgtk-3-dev
aptitude install libgconf2-dev
aptitude install libdbus-glib-1-dev
aptitude install libpulse-dev

# rust dependencies
cargo install cbindgen

# an assembler for compiling webm
aptitude install yasm

ondoho · 02-29-2020, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 938442

I was not clear with alsa and firefox, what I meant was that I only have alsa and sound in firefox works, so firefox does not require pulseaudio.

But tor-browser does.

Took a while to figure that out.

Solution:

Code:

apulse tor-browser

938442 · 02-29-2020, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

But tor-browser does.

Took a while to figure that out.

Solution:

Code:

apulse tor-browser

I tried launching with apulse as stated in my original post, still does not work.

938442 · 02-29-2020, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aus9

so my questions are:

1) Where exactly did you get your FF from?
b) if not sure...but its from Debian....not from Mozilla....post the contents of your apt debian.list please
2) what is its current version number?
3) Can you re-confirm you have no PA installed or....
4) Can you confirm if PA is installed....its truly not running please.

1) I installed firefox-esr package from debian repositories
b)

Code:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main

deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main

# buster-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main

# buster-backports
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-backports main contrib non-free

# VirtualBox
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian buster contrib

3) 68.5.0esr
4) There is no pulseaudio installed or running. Only thing I found is libpulse0 and I think it is virtualbox dependency

Code:

sudo apt purge libpulse0
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libasyncns0 libcaca0 libqt5opengl5 libqt5printsupport5 libsndfile1 libwrap0
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  libpulse0* libsdl-ttf2.0-0* libsdl1.2debian* virtualbox-6.1*

938442 · 02-29-2020, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 938442

I tried launching with apulse as stated in my original post, still does not work.

Just checked if it works with apulse, it does indeed. But only the version from tor website. When I tried launching tor browser installed from debian repos with apulse, there was no sound.