no sound in flash in browsers

[Preserved Killick]

Hi folks. I hope someone can help.

I'm running Ubuntu 10.4, Firefox 3.6.12 and Flash 10.1 r102 and Chrome 8.0.552.208 beta. Both of these browsers will show video, but not play sounds.

I *do* have sound with Rhythmbox or when playing games, eg bzflag.

I have tried removing firefox and downloading the tarball version from Mozilla. I have tried running firefox as root. I have upgraded to the latest firefox and latest flash.

If you know what's gone wrong or have an idea about how to find out, please reply.

Thanks!

Killick

[Preserved Killick]

I installed Opera and flash still has no sound. I'm pretty sure this is a flash issue, as it's coming up across three browsers. Any ideas on how to fix this?

[sikander3786]

This might help. Courtesy of forum member lovinglinux,

http://firefox-tutorials.blogspot.co...solutions.html

[Preserved Killick]

Thanks, Sikander. I appreciate your offering help. I read through what's there for the 'no sound' problem. (I have posted what's on the site below). When I looked, I saw that the file I'm to delete doesn't exist on my system, and that I need to install asound-gtk. And then I need to make PulseAudio my default sound card. I thought PulseAudio was a sound server. I don't understand what exactly ALSA is.

I used to have sound in flash and now I don't. It failed on Ubuntu 9.04 and I upgraded to 10.4 and it still isn't working.

The directions for changing the sound card don't match what I see when I click System >> Preferences >>. After Preferences, there is Sound, but none of the tabs mention setting a default sound card. And by the way, my machine has two sound cards-- one built-in and a second I added but am no longer using.

Sound Preferences "Output volume" is set at 1000%.

When looking at the Sound Preferences "Applications" tab, I tried running a YouTube video on Firefox. It shows "ALSA plug-in[plugin-container]" and the volume slider is all the way over to the maximum. But no sound is playing that I can hear.

I then also started Rhythmbox and it shows as "Rhythmbox" and the slider is about 2/3 of the way to the maximum. I can hear Rhythmbox.

I don't want to break sound everywhere else to fix flash. If I were to install asound-gtk would that change my System >> Preferences menu and then show me an option to choose a default sound card? And by sound card, am I talking about the physical hardware, the PulseAudio server, or something else?

Shouldn't I be using PulseAudio already?

Anyone who will help is welcome to jump in here. Thanks again to Sikander!


Here's what the website instructs:

" * No sound in flash, but sound works elsewhere


Run the following commands:

Code:

rm -fr ~/.pulse ~/.asound*
sudo rm /etc/asound.conf


Create a asound.conf file with the command below:

Code:

gksudo gedit /etc/asound.conf


Then add the following code and save it:

Code:

pcm.pulse {
type pulse
}
ctl.pulse {
type pulse
}
pcm.!default {
type pulse
}
ctl.!default {
type pulse
}


Set up PulseAudio as the default sound card:

Code:

sudo apt-get install asound-gtk


Then go to System >> Preferences >> Default Sound Card and ensure that PulseAudio is selected, and restart your browser.


Sources:

* https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PulseAudio
"

[Aquix]

I've had this problem before and after loads of searching the solution was too easy.

Preferences > sound > applications tab ... when playing a video on youtube it should come up: ALSA Plug-in [firefox-bin] and just unmute. If not then search on.

[excetara2]

I added the above asound.conf pulse config to the \etc\ folder but what exactly does this do?? Shouldn't the default be pulse anyway?

It made it work so.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Preserved Killick]

I've had this problem before and after loads of searching the solution was too easy.

Preferences > sound > applications tab ... when playing a video on youtube it should come up: ALSA Plug-in [firefox-bin] and just unmute. If not then search on.

Hmmm. I wish that was my issue. My sound is already un-muted. Thanks for the tip, though.

[excetara2]

Did you give this part a go?? My sound worked everywhere except the browsers in flash. I added this asound.conf file and now it works flawlessly. Just add it and restart browser. Now log out or restart necessary so real easy to try.

Code:

gksudo gedit /etc/asound.conf


Then add the following code and save it:

Code:

pcm.pulse {
type pulse
}
ctl.pulse {
type pulse
}
pcm.!default {
type pulse
}
ctl.!default {
type pulse
}

[Preserved Killick]

I tried creating /etc/asound.conf and restarting the browser, but there was no change.

I then went through all the steps described. Now I have no sound, at all, in any program.

When it came time to install asound-gtk, I saw that this package didn't exist, but there was a program call asoundconf-gtk, described as an applet to select the default sound card. So I installed it.

Next I looked in the System >> Preferences >> and found that there was a "Default Sound Card" separate from the "Sound" item. I clicked it, but it never launched-- I saw the message in my bottem panel that it was starting, but nothing ever showed on my screen. I tried it twice.

Now when I try to use System >> Preferences >> Sound, the Sound applet will not start. Instead I get a box "Waiting for sound system to respond" [cancel].

I tried launching asoundconf-gtk from the terminal, thinking I'd at least get an error. I saw this:

~$ asoundconf-gtk
sh: /usr/bin/asoundconf: not found
You need to make sure asoundconf is active!
By default, asoundconf's configuration file is ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf
and must be included in ~/.asoundrc. Open this file to make sure it is!

So I looked for .asoundrc.asoundconf but it's not in my system.

Next I tried copying /etc/asound.conf to /home/user/.asoundrc.asound.conf.

Then I tried running sudo asoundconf-gtk again, and got the same message as above.

Rhythmbox-- no sound
Mplayer-- no sound
YouTube-- no sound

My sound system is thoroughly borked now.

Anyone have advice on how to recover? I'm 1/2 way to thinking I'll just reinstall the whole OS, even though the fresh install didn't fix the flash problem last time. At least I had some sound.

Anyone? Thanks,

killick

[excetara2]

sudo apt-get --purge remove linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils and

then

sudo apt-get install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils gdm gnome-desktop

This resets your sound drivers so reinstall is not necessary. Reboot after running the above two commands. It won't remove the asound.conf file so I'd leave that in place for now. Hopefully, you get your sound back. If not, post again. Maybe with the reset and asound.conf file you'll get flash sound back. If not, install FLASH-AID and run it. It's a firefox app to remove all extraneous flash apps and just install the 64-bit square beta. Give the above a go and let us know.

Cheers.