Firefox and XINE don't play nice. Help?

[Pike]

Okay peeps, I've google'd this and searched Ubuntu Forums and am not really getting any help, which leads me to believe that maybe this really can't be fixed, but you guys all seem to be a smart bunch so maybe it CAN be fixed!

Here's the deal: I'm running Kubuntu Linux 6.06 "Dapper". Watching a YouTube movie in Firefox or playing a flash game seems to have about a 50% chance of completely killing my sound. I usually notice this because I'll try to put on some music afterward (I use Amarok) and I'll get some message along the lines of "Xine was unable to initialize any audio-drivers". Also, system sounds/other program sounds quit working.

I used to think that the only way to fix this was by restarting X but recently I've discovered that completely killing Firefox seems to get the sound back as well.

Anyways, any ideas? I suppose it's more of an annoyance than a big problem but yeah, it does get irritating!

[Yamaneko]

What version of Flash are you using?

Do you have any of the following codecs installed:

gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-gl gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse libxine-extracodecs w32codecs

Make sure to sudo apt-get all of them.

Oh and I'm guessing you're using ALSA instead of OSS, but just make sure in your volume controls.

[Pike]

Flash:
File name: libflashplayer.so
Shockwave Flash 9.0 r31

I just double checked, and I have all those codecs installed.

And yes, I'm using ALSA.

[Shoeberto]

ALSA has given me bad problems in the past much like yours - randomly killing audio - and the only thing I've been able to do to fix it is to switch everything to ESD and reboot (under System -> Preferences -> Sound).

Hopefully this helps you; I haven't had any audio problems since.

[Yamaneko]

Yeah, what kind of sound card are you using. I know ALSA doesn't work well with all sound cards or onboard sound solutions.

[Pike]

ALSA has given me bad problems in the past much like yours - randomly killing audio - and the only thing I've been able to do to fix it is to switch everything to ESD and reboot (under System -> Preferences -> Sound).

Hopefully this helps you; I haven't had any audio problems since.

Thanks for the advice. I tried ESD and Firefox is doing fine with it (so far) but Amarok seems to refuse to use anything but ALSA (unless I'm forgetting about some Amarok setting somewhere.) I like Amarok but I wouldn't be averse to trying other music players if that's the only issue so I'll look into that.

Yeah, what kind of sound card are you using. I know ALSA doesn't work well with all sound cards or onboard sound solutions.

I'm using a Realtek AC97.

[Yamaneko]

You can also try the steps in this howto.

[o_O]

I had this problem on Breezy a couple of years ago. I fixed it by doing:

mv ~/.asoundrc{,.bk}
amarok &

.

Obviously you have Xine set as your engine in Amarok, but do you have your output plugin set to ALSA? You could also test it with OSS and autodetection.

If Xine is conflicting with aRts, you can remove (or backup) ~/.kde/share/config/amarokrc and see if that fixes the problem.

mv .kde/share/config/amarokrc{,.bk}
amarok &

If that is indeed the problem, then there is probably a section in the amarokrc file with some stuff about aRts.

When you know the problem is affecting playback:
* Try running Amarok as root.
* Try running xine [file.mp3] to see if that'll work.

[Pike]

I don't seem to have an .asoundrc file: "mv: cannot stat `/home/pikestaff/.asoundrc': No such file or directory"

My output plugin in Amarok is set to ALSA, changing it to OSS or anything else gets me the "Xine was unable to initialize any audio-drivers" message, which goes away if I set it back to ALSA.

I'll give that other stuff you mentioned a shot too and see if it helps at all...

[Shoeberto]

Thanks for the advice. I tried ESD and Firefox is doing fine with it (so far) but Amarok seems to refuse to use anything but ALSA (unless I'm forgetting about some Amarok setting somewhere.) I like Amarok but I wouldn't be averse to trying other music players if that's the only issue so I'll look into that.

Are the Xine errors still popping up in Amarok?

Amarok is still using alsa on my system, apparently, but with everything running ESD (and therefore not touching and ultimately crashing ALSA), Amarok runs fine. I'm also running the AC97 onboard sound.