Q4OS Forum

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,350

Firefox 52 sound will only work if you have PulseAudio

Not a problem but a bit of a heads up. I hate FF-ESR because it is just so sluggish and so replace it with the Mozilla FF build.

Fortunately it does not update automatically - my hardware has some long term issues with pulseaudio and so I use ALSA

It seems that Mozilla didn't see fit to mention this in their release notes for 52 but they've made PulseAudio a hard dependency - thanks Mozilla!

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,994

Re: Firefox 52 sound will only work if you have PulseAudio

You might want to keep an eye on this debian forum post, looks like an alternative may be on the horizon.

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,350

Re: Firefox 52 sound will only work if you have PulseAudio

Not holding my breath - Mozilla have said 'no way' to any reprieve on this so ultimately it would need a fork from 51 to keep the functionality in place. Palemoon is just vintage FF - I do use it for sure but not a lot. Having said that I don't use FF much either - Seamonkey has long been my go to internet tool - juts gets a bit cranky at the end of life cycle as some sites strat moaning about its age even with user agent settings.
Back to Lynx I guess

JimW

Member

Registered: 2015-12-08

Posts: 400

Re: Firefox 52 sound will only work if you have PulseAudio

Altho I absolutely hate to do it I occasionally resort to Chrome!

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,994

Re: Firefox 52 sound will only work if you have PulseAudio

The last post (as of now) states

I have now compiled and installed apulse in my Debian stretch system and I can confirm that firefox-esr version 52.0.1 will produce sound without PulseAudio installed.

so maybe there is a future for FF without PulseAudio...

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,994

Re: Firefox 52 sound will only work if you have PulseAudio

Just read on Debian Forum

The new firefox-esr 52.0.1 update from mozilla-debian.net also has re-enabled alsa support for the time being, plus it patches that pwn2own security hole

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,350

Re: Firefox 52 sound will only work if you have PulseAudio

Yes - it is interesting that it is in the esr update. I'm puzzled as normally esr is a few version numbers behind. Good to see that Mozilla are on top of security holes as always - which does beg the question whether derivatives such as Palemoon are actually a safe bet.

Double puzzled because they've done a U turn - the impression was that it would not be possible to make it work.........strange!

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,994

Re: Firefox 52 sound will only work if you have PulseAudio

Yes strange indeed, I have read that many users are not happy with PulseAudio although personally I don't mind either so long as my sound works.