No sound for Firefox and for the VLC player

English Multimedia
#1

Some of my apps will give sounds but not all. When viewing videos on YouTube, I can get video but no sound. The same is for the VLC player. My particulars are:

New Dell computer. Dual boot with windows 7 and the sound there is OK.

CPU is Intel C7 with 8 G-byte of ram.

OS is Open SUSE version 11.2 - 64 bit

Desktop is KDE

sound is 5 series/3400 Seriies Chippset High Def Audio

I just recently installed Open Suse so no new software other than what was there on install is added. By the way, I get the KDE sounds and can play audio CD’s so the souind is working partially. Just not for these apps. I have Adobe Flash installed.

I will need some help because I’m new to KDE. I have previously used Gnome on other computers. I’m not familiar where to look for things yet.

#2

Did you know that there are 3 other threads on the first page of Multimedia that has possible solutions for your Youtube problem? Keywords to look for are Flash, Firefox, and YouTube.

#3

The VLC player and the YouTube problem “may” (and are likely) different problems.

In the case of flash, there could be a few different reasons for your problem, and the solution provided may different dependent on your desktop (because each desktop handles sound differently).

Some suggestions

  • start a video in Firefox and then check the mixer PCM level (on kde the mixer is ‘kmix’ ) . That needs to be moved up in volume and it may have dynamically moved down to zero
    .
  • If KDE check YaST > Hardware > Sound and note the priority of audio devices. The device in which you wish to play audio from in Firefox should typically be chip-0. Then go to KDE kickoff application launcher > Configure Desktop > Multimedia and ensure the priority of audio devices there matches what you observed in YaST.
    .
    Often users with 2 sound devices will struggle a bit with Firefox and flash videos until they sort this.
    .
  • Go to Firefox > Edit > Preferences > Applications > Shockwave Flash file and change the selection to “use Flash Player (default)”. You may need to restart firefox afterward.

If that works for flash on Youtube, but you find VLC still does not work for audio, post here. Unfortunately there is a risk that VLC could be messed up due to poor repository management on your PC.

Good luck

#4

(My response will start with WS=> )

In the case of flash, there could be a few different reasons for your problem, and the solution provided may different dependent on your desktop (because each desktop handles sound differently).

WS=> My first concern will be firefox + flash. I can live with whatever happens to VLC. I hope that this simplifies matters.

Some suggestions

* start a video in Firefox and then check the mixer PCM level (on kde the mixer is 'kmix' ) . That needs to be moved up in volume and it may have dynamically moved down to zero

WS=> I looked in firefox and I can’t find the PCM mixer settings, where do I look? I am using using KDE version 4.3.5. I am a bit unfamiliar to KDE having used Gnome previously. Where can I view and adjust the Kmix settings. Also in Firefox, where is Kmix located?

* If KDE check YaST > Hardware > Sound and note the priority of audio devices. The device in which you wish to play audio from in Firefox should typically be chip-0. Then go to KDE kickoff application launcher > Configure Desktop > Multimedia and ensure the priority of audio devices there matches what you observed in YaST.
  .

WS=> YAST > hardware > Sound reports 1 item…
index = 0 , 5 Series / 3400 Series Chipset High definition Audio.

  Often users with 2 sound devices will struggle a bit with Firefox and flash videos until they sort this.

WS=>It appears to YAST that there is only 1 audio device ( I think ).

  .
* Go to Firefox > Edit > Preferences > Applications > Shockwave Flash file and change the selection to "use Flash Player (default)". You may need to restart firefox afterward.

WS=> This has already been done.

If that works for flash on Youtube, but you find VLC still does not work for audio, post here. Unfortunately there is a risk that VLC could be messed up due to poor repository management on your PC.

WS=> VLC doesn’t matter at this time. (At least until I have Firefox + Flash working properly. Thanks for the help but we haven’t fixed Firefox + Flash yet.

#5

kmix is NOT in firefox. Rather kmix is a KDE application separate from firefox.

Do you see a small speaker icon in the lower right corner? Right click on that. It should say “KMix”. Then with that icon menu box open, select “Show Mixer Window”. Do you see a PCM volume control ? If a PCM volume control is not present in KMix go to settings > configure channels and add a PCM volume control if available.

#6

OK , good, but just because YaST has one sound device does not mean that KMenu > Configure Desktop > Multimedia has only one “device” indicated. Please go there ALSO and check, and ensure the same “only” device that is listed in YaST is also the 1st device in sound playback in Configure Desktop > Multimedia.

#7

I always check the other posts before posting a new message! I had no luck!

#8

You said…
"kmix is NOT in firefox. Rather kmix is a KDE application separate from firefox.

Do you see a small speaker icon in the lower right corner? Right click on that. It should say “KMix”. Then with that icon menu box open, select “Show Mixer Window”. Do you see a PCM volume control ? If a PCM volume control is not present in KMix go to settings > configure channels and add a PCM volume control if available."

WS=>

  1. The PCM device that you mentioned was listed but the setting was at the lowest setting. I moved the slider to the middle. When I tried viewing a YouTube video on Firefox I still get no results.

You said…
“OK , good, but just because YaST has one sound device does not mean that KMenu > Configure Desktop > Multimedia has only one “device” indicated. Please go there ALSO and check, and ensure the same “only” device that is listed in YaST is also the 1st device in sound playback in Configure Desktop > Multimedia.”

WS=>
2. KDE (Configure desktop / multimedia) reports two audio devices…

HDA Intel(ALC887 Analog)
and
PluseAdio

They both test OK on the KDE desktop when tested using the “TEST” button. It appears that HDA Intel(ALC887 Analog) is preferred because the “DEFER” button is active and the “PREFER” button isn’t.

#9

Thank you, Oldcpu, I now got sound in Firefox. One thing was strange however. It did not work and in desperation, I tried rebooting the computer, When it started up again, it was working. Often a reboot seems to help!

I haven’t checked if VLC works, but that will wait till later.

#10

Sometimes a process is using the sound device and refusing to share it, which is why a reboot may work sometimes.

Instead, one can sometimes type:

su -c 'rcalsasound restart'

and enter root password when prompted for a password to shutdown and restart the sound driver

One can also look to see what applications have files open associated with the sound device, which can help sometimes to see if an application has seized the sound device and is refusing to let go. To list open files (wrt the sound devices) one can type:

lsof /dev/dsp* /dev/audio* /dev/mixer* /dev/snd/*

note the syntax on the last check “/dev/snd/*” is deliberately different from the others.

Glad to read we are making some progress re: firefox.