flash and mozilla (and firefox and epiphany)
Paul Yeatman
browser anymore. This has begun since I upgraded to sarge. Mozilla
(and firefox) using flashplugin-nonfree freezes when I go to common
flash sites. The entire browser is then hosed until the processes are
killed from another window. I bet I'm explaining something all too
familiar for some (many?) of you, I'm guessing. Used to work fine
with Mozilla before upgrading. I've experienced the same thing on
a completely different computer running Red Hat 8. I'm not seeing much
discussion about it, however. So, maybe I'm either wrong, need to
accept it just doesn't work or am really behind in the
discussion/solution :)
Epiphany plays flash just fine. But just doesn't play the soundtrack.
My flash life is really in the junk yard right now. Please save
me from jumping to Windows just to see homestarrunner.com.
Any help? Thanks.
--
Paul Yeatman (858) 534-9896 pyea...@ucsd.edu
==================================
==Proudly brought to you by Mutt==
==================================
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-us...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listm...@lists.debian.org
Paul Yeatman
after my original post, that I got more clues as to is going on
concerning flash causing Mozilla to freeze on my Debian Sarge system.
The problem appears to be with esd. Esd (appears to be ) used by
default by gnome and is started--esd -nobeeps--when you log in. This
works fine with everything: xmms, xine, etc. The only case in which it
doesn't work is when the flash plugin is invoked from a web browser.
The animation will soon stop and the browser is toast. I feel
fortunate today to discover that if esd is first killed before
going to a website running flash, the flash runs fine albeit without
sound. If "auto_spawn=0" is changed to "1" in /etc/esound/esd.conf and
any esd processes are first killed, going to a flash website will
automatically start an esd process and flash will play normally (with
sound!) but then nothing else, such as xmms, will work until the flash
completes and the esd processes automatically completes (after 5
seconds in my case). This kinda defeats the point of esd, doesn't it?
Can anyone help me out with what is going on here? As all other
audio/video applications I run simultaneously use the inital esd
process started by gnome, why can't flash? Should I force gnome to use
something other than esd?
Thanks,
Paul
->>In response to your message<<-
--received from Paul Yeatman--
Jacob S.
Paul Yeatman <pyea...@ucsd.edu> wrote:
> Hi again. I'm responding to my own post. It wasn't until today,
> weeks after my original post, that I got more clues as to is going on
> concerning flash causing Mozilla to freeze on my Debian Sarge system.
> The problem appears to be with esd. Esd (appears to be ) used by
> default by gnome and is started--esd -nobeeps--when you log in. This
> works fine with everything: xmms, xine, etc. The only case in which
> it doesn't work is when the flash plugin is invoked from a web
> browser. The animation will soon stop and the browser is toast. I
> feel fortunate today to discover that if esd is first killed before
> going to a website running flash, the flash runs fine albeit without
> sound. If "auto_spawn=0" is changed to "1" in /etc/esound/esd.conf
> and any esd processes are first killed, going to a flash website will
> automatically start an esd process and flash will play normally (with
> sound!) but then nothing else, such as xmms, will work until the flash
> completes and the esd processes automatically completes (after 5
> seconds in my case). This kinda defeats the point of esd, doesn't it?
> Can anyone help me out with what is going on here? As all other
> audio/video applications I run simultaneously use the inital esd
> process started by gnome, why can't flash? Should I force gnome to
> use something other than esd?
That's odd. I'm using esd on my system (previously with OSS drivers, now
with Alsa) and I can hear sound from flash just fine; as well as play
xmms at the same time, etc.
What happens if you kill any existing esd instances, run "esd &" from a
terminal in X (assuming you're logged in as a user, not root) and then
run "esdctl unlock"? Are you able to play both xmms and flash sounds?
Also, you are using the esd output plugin in xmms, aren't you?
HTH,
Jacob
--
GnuPG Key: 1024D/16377135
Random .signature #43:
Q: How many Microsoft Programmers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: It cannot be done. You will need to upgrade your house.
Q: How many Linux users does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Two. One to write the HOWTO-LIGHTBULB-CRONJOB, and another to read
it.
Paul Yeatman
->>In response to your message<<-
--received from Jacob S.--
> That's odd. I'm using esd on my system (previously with OSS drivers, now
> with Alsa) and I can hear sound from flash just fine; as well as play
> xmms at the same time, etc.
I'm fairly sure the system is using esd with OSS drivers so this
could be the difference. Well, actually, how do I confirm OSS
drivers? The correct sound module, cmpci, is getting loaded. That's
typically what I think of as the driver. Where/how does OSS come in.
I for sure don't have ALSA installed. I didn't do any sound
configuration myself. The build correctly identified the sound card and
loads the correct module with no configuration/help needed on my part
(a nice difference from previous builds of Debian :)
>
> What happens if you kill any existing esd instances, run "esd &" from a
> terminal in X (assuming you're logged in as a user, not root) and then
> run "esdctl unlock"? Are you able to play both xmms and flash sounds?
> Also, you are using the esd output plugin in xmms, aren't you?
>
I have no idea what 'esdctl unlock' does but I did as you said (got
a series of increasing pitch tones when I ran 'esd &') but
got the same result: xmms et al. work fine, while the browser,
trying to employ the flash plugin, incurably freezes.
Maybe I should try esd employing ALSA drivers?
Paul
>
> On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 11:04:27 -0700
> Paul Yeatman <pyea...@ucsd.edu> wrote:
>
> > Hi again. I'm responding to my own post. It wasn't until today,
> > weeks after my original post, that I got more clues as to is going on
> > concerning flash causing Mozilla to freeze on my Debian Sarge system.
> > The problem appears to be with esd. Esd (appears to be ) used by
> > default by gnome and is started--esd -nobeeps--when you log in. This
> > works fine with everything: xmms, xine, etc. The only case in which
> > it doesn't work is when the flash plugin is invoked from a web
> > browser. The animation will soon stop and the browser is toast. I
> > feel fortunate today to discover that if esd is first killed before
> > going to a website running flash, the flash runs fine albeit without
> > sound. If "auto_spawn=0" is changed to "1" in /etc/esound/esd.conf
> > and any esd processes are first killed, going to a flash website will
> > automatically start an esd process and flash will play normally (with
> > sound!) but then nothing else, such as xmms, will work until the flash
> > completes and the esd processes automatically completes (after 5
> > seconds in my case). This kinda defeats the point of esd, doesn't it?
> > Can anyone help me out with what is going on here? As all other
> > audio/video applications I run simultaneously use the initial esd
> > process started by gnome, why can't flash? Should I force gnome to
> > use something other than esd?
>
> That's odd. I'm using esd on my system (previously with OSS drivers, now
> with Alsa) and I can hear sound from flash just fine; as well as play
> xmms at the same time, etc.
>
> What happens if you kill any existing esd instances, run "esd &" from a
> terminal in X (assuming you're logged in as a user, not root) and then
> run "esdctl unlock"? Are you able to play both xmms and flash sounds?
> Also, you are using the esd output plugin in xmms, aren't you?
>
> HTH,
> Jacob
>
> --
> GnuPG Key: 1024D/16377135
>
> Random .signature #43:
> Q: How many Microsoft Programmers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
> A: It cannot be done. You will need to upgrade your house.
>
> Q: How many Linux users does it take to change a lightbulb?
> A: Two. One to write the HOWTO-LIGHTBULB-CRONJOB, and another to read
> it.
--
Ralph Katz
> I'm fairly sure the system is using esd with OSS drivers so this
> could be the difference. Well, actually, how do I confirm OSS
> drivers?
While I'm no expert, I can see mine here on this stock kernel:
~$ grep -i oss /boot/config-2.4.25-1-686
CONFIG_CHR_DEV_OSST=m
CONFIG_SOUND_OSS=m
Just substitute your kernel image config filename.
> I have no idea what 'esdctl unlock' does but I did as you said (got
> a series of increasing pitch tones when I ran 'esd &') but
> got the same result: xmms et al. work fine, while the browser,
> trying to employ the flash plugin, incurably freezes.
My flashplayer finally works w/ sound if I killall esd before visiting a
flash-animated web page. The freezes are more rare. But I do not hear
any sounds from other sources (gaim, for ex.) while the flash animation
is playing, even with 'esdctl unlock'.
See the thread and my post of July 13 Subject: Re: Still no sound in
Flash for more info.
Bottom line, it doesn't look like an issue of oss vs. alsa.
Oh, esd -nobeeps will be easier on your ears!
Here's my config file if it's any help:
$ cat /etc/esound/esd.conf
[esd]
auto_spawn=1
spawn_options=-terminate -nobeeps -as 5
spawn_wait_ms=100
Regards,
Ralph
Jacob S.
Ralph Katz <ralph...@rcn.com> wrote:
> On 07/20/04 18:40, Paul Yeatman wrote:
>
> > I'm fairly sure the system is using esd with OSS drivers so this
> > could be the difference. Well, actually, how do I confirm OSS
> > drivers?
>
> While I'm no expert, I can see mine here on this stock kernel:
>
> ~$ grep -i oss /boot/config-2.4.25-1-686
> CONFIG_CHR_DEV_OSST=m
> CONFIG_SOUND_OSS=m
>
> Just substitute your kernel image config filename.
If you didn't install/compile alsa, and you're not using a 2.6 kernel,
you can pretty much guarantee you're using OSS drivers.
> > I have no idea what 'esdctl unlock' does but I did as you said (got
> > a series of increasing pitch tones when I ran 'esd &') but
> > got the same result: xmms et al. work fine, while the browser,
> > trying to employ the flash plugin, incurably freezes.
esdctl unlock allows foreign clients to use esd, according to
/usr/share/doc/esound/html/x119.html.
> My flashplayer finally works w/ sound if I killall esd before visiting
> a flash-animated web page. The freezes are more rare. But I do not
> hear any sounds from other sources (gaim, for ex.) while the flash
> animation is playing, even with 'esdctl unlock'.
These symptoms are why I thought esdctl unlock might help. Evideintly I
was wrong though.
> See the thread and my post of July 13 Subject: Re: Still no sound in
> Flash for more info.
>
> Bottom line, it doesn't look like an issue of oss vs. alsa.
Right. I tried to avoid saying it was an issue of the drivers, but must
not have done a good enough job. I was running Woody with OSS drivers,
then upgraded to Sarge with OSS drivers and am now using Sarge with
Alsa drivers. In all 3 configurations, I have been able to hear sounds
from xmms, gaim & flash animations at the same time using esd.
> Oh, esd -nobeeps will be easier on your ears!
True. I prefer hearing that esd did really start and can talk to the
sound card properly, rather than just thinking it started properly and
seeing that there's some kind of esd thing running when I do ps ax. So,
I usually leave off the -nobeeps. Just my preference.
I'm afraid I'm running out of ideas. I don't know of any way to
configure where flash outputs sound, or I would think that would be it.
Jacob
--
GnuPG Key: 1024D/16377135
Random .signature #54:
If Bill Gates had a nickel for every time Windows crashed... Oh wait, he
does.
Paul Yeatman
> >I'm fairly sure the system is using esd with OSS drivers so this
> >could be the difference. Well, actually, how do I confirm OSS
> >drivers?
>
> While I'm no expert, I can see mine here on this stock kernel:
>
> ~$ grep -i oss /boot/config-2.4.25-1-686
> CONFIG_CHR_DEV_OSST=m
> CONFIG_SOUND_OSS=m
Ah, ok, and these are also marked as modules in my kernel and with some
quick research the OSS module is sound.o. But "sound" is not a
module currently loaded by my system which means I must not be using an
OSS driver for my card. The modules I have loaded and which are
related to sound are "soundcore" and "cmpci".
>
> Just substitute your kernel image config filename.
>
> >I have no idea what 'esdctl unlock' does but I did as you said (got
> >a series of increasing pitch tones when I ran 'esd &') but
> >got the same result: xmms et al. work fine, while the browser,
> >trying to employ the flash plugin, incurably freezes.
>
> My flashplayer finally works w/ sound if I killall esd before visiting a
> flash-animated web page. The freezes are more rare. But I do not hear
> any sounds from other sources (gaim, for ex.) while the flash animation
> is playing, even with 'esdctl unlock'.
Ah, this is exactly what I've discovered only recently! I'm sorry to
know about the problem but its nice to finally hear someone else
acknowledge the situation. I was using debian package mozilla/firefox
with debian package flashplugin-nonfree and things didn't work.
During a few days of off and on research, it didn't seem like anyone
else was having the same problem which was really perplexing me.
>
> See the thread and my post of July 13 Subject: Re: Still no sound in
> Flash for more info.
I did a fair amount of googling myself and searching/joining mail
lists on macromedia, mozilla, and of course here. I never found
the bugs as you did on bugzilla. This would have helped. As I
said, from all my searching, it wasn't clear that this was a
common problem. I obviously don't have a good technique for
searching out known bugs yet.
>
> Bottom line, it doesn't look like an issue of oss vs. alsa.
Than, what is the issue (I guess I need to go read the bug reports
more carefully)? From the short summary, the one bug mentions
that it is hard-to-fix code in Mozilla.
It's strange that the problem seems to be with esd (when an esd
process(es) is already running). I still can't help but wonder if
some other sound setup would resolve the problem although I have
no idea even what that could be :)
>
> Oh, esd -nobeeps will be easier on your ears!
Ah, so that's what the "-nobeeps" is about :)
> Here's my config file if it's any help:
>
> $ cat /etc/esound/esd.conf
> [esd]
> auto_spawn=1
> spawn_options=-terminate -nobeeps -as 5
> spawn_wait_ms=100
>
> Regards,
> Ralph
Thanks, alot. I really appreciate the feedback and input. Having
an understanding of the problem is already much better. I can
play my favorite flash sites once again. I suppose if anyone comes up
with a more slick solution, it will be shared with all those having
trouble getting to their favorite flash sites.
Paul
--
Paul Yeatman (858) 534-9896 pyea...@ucsd.edu
==================================
==Proudly brought to you by Mutt==
==================================
Paul Yeatman
->>In response to your message<<-
--received from Jacob S.--
That's really amazing. It's good to know though so I don't waste
a bunch of time trying different sound configs and kernel versions
to only get the same result. Could the difference be the sound card
itself?
>
> > Oh, esd -nobeeps will be easier on your ears!
>
> True. I prefer hearing that esd did really start and can talk to the
> sound card properly, rather than just thinking it started properly and
> seeing that there's some kind of esd thing running when I do ps ax. So,
> I usually leave off the -nobeeps. Just my preference.
>
> I'm afraid I'm running out of ideas. I don't know of any way to
> configure where flash outputs sound, or I would think that would be it.
No kidding. Really strange. Yes, looking for some kind of output
driver selection from within Flash was my first thought in solving
things. No such configuration option found, however.
--
Paul Yeatman (858) 534-9896 pyea...@ucsd.edu
==================================
==Proudly brought to you by Mutt==
==================================
Wim De Smet
> Hi again. I'm responding to my own post. It wasn't until today, weeks
> after my original post, that I got more clues as to is going on
> concerning flash causing Mozilla to freeze on my Debian Sarge system.
> The problem appears to be with esd. Esd (appears to be ) used by
> default by gnome and is started--esd -nobeeps--when you log in. This
> works fine with everything: xmms, xine, etc. The only case in which it
> doesn't work is when the flash plugin is invoked from a web browser.
> The animation will soon stop and the browser is toast. I feel
> fortunate today to discover that if esd is first killed before
> going to a website running flash, the flash runs fine albeit without
> sound. If "auto_spawn=0" is changed to "1" in /etc/esound/esd.conf and
> any esd processes are first killed, going to a flash website will
> automatically start an esd process and flash will play normally (with
> sound!) but then nothing else, such as xmms, will work until the flash
> completes and the esd processes automatically completes (after 5
> seconds in my case). This kinda defeats the point of esd, doesn't it?
> Can anyone help me out with what is going on here? As all other
> audio/video applications I run simultaneously use the inital esd
> process started by gnome, why can't flash? Should I force gnome to use
> something other than esd?
This is, actually, a known problem. Do dpk-reconfigure -plow
mozilla-browser and you will get an option asking you to choose a
wrapper for esd. It is explained there that the plugin locks /dev/dsp
which causes esd to hang. So choose a wrapper here and the problem
*should* be resolved.
greets,
Wim
Paul Yeatman
I need to kill esd before going to a flash-enabled web site to see the
flash correctly (and not have my browser die), I assumed the flash was
spawning its own esd process. Actually, I just noticed that, while
flash is playing correctly--without freezing and with sound--no esd
process is running. So flash must be accessing /dev/dsp directly which
thus must be the problem when an esd process is already running.
Thus, the solution would seem to be (as Wim pointed out) the sound
driver wrapper used by Mozilla. Unless I'm using it wrongly (again,
I'm using Sarge), it doesn't appear to solve the problem. I'm assuming
if I'm using esd that I want the value of "esddsp" for MOZILLA_DSP.
Yet neither this nor the value "auto" seems to allow flash to play from
a web browser while esd is running. In both cases, the flash
animation and the browser itself hangs. Part of the strangeness
is that this wasn't a problem in Woody. This has only been the
case since I've upgraded to Sarge (which possibly is due to a
later version of Mozilla?).
paul
->>In response to your message<<-
--received from Paul Yeatman--
Wim De Smet
> I just noticed something I didn't notice before. Since I have learned
> I need to kill esd before going to a flash-enabled web site to see the
> flash correctly (and not have my browser die), I assumed the flash was
> spawning its own esd process. Actually, I just noticed that, while
> flash is playing correctly--without freezing and with sound--no esd
> process is running. So flash must be accessing /dev/dsp directly which
> thus must be the problem when an esd process is already running.
Sounds logical.
>
> Thus, the solution would seem to be (as Wim pointed out) the sound
> driver wrapper used by Mozilla. Unless I'm using it wrongly (again,
> I'm using Sarge), it doesn't appear to solve the problem. I'm assuming
> if I'm using esd that I want the value of "esddsp" for MOZILLA_DSP.
> Yet neither this nor the value "auto" seems to allow flash to play from
> a web browser while esd is running. In both cases, the flash
> animation and the browser itself hangs. Part of the strangeness
> is that this wasn't a problem in Woody. This has only been the
> case since I've upgraded to Sarge (which possibly is due to a
> later version of Mozilla?).
It seems strange that it doesn't just work out of the box. Are you
using the latest version of the flashplugin btw (installed with the
deb package I presume?). You may want to file a bug report on this. I
think it should just work...
greets,
Wim
Paul Yeatman
At the moment, I have Flash installed from a download from Macromedia
itself. This is only because I could never get things to work with the
Debian flashplugin-nonfree package nor a flash plugin package provided
from another apt source site (both using version 7, I'm fairly
confident). Now the value I was using for MOZILLA_DSP was "espdsp" the
whole time (I never thought to try different values for this back
then). I don't know if that has anything to do with why things were
not working but seems to me to be the best setting given that I'm using
esd. Due to the overall problem, I spent some time in the Macromedia
Flash mailing list where I read someone commenting about how many
problems would be avoided if people only read the instructions and
followed advice/instructions given via the mailing list. This is when
I downloaded the plugin, version 7.0 r25, directly from Macromedia and
followed the instructions to the "t" (which, interestingly enough,
places one of the two files in a different location). I hoped this may
solve things but no dice. This is what I still have installed at the
moment.
I now am convinced that the problem resides with the appearance that
Flash accesses /dev/dsp directly creating a conflict anytime another
application has already locked the dsp device first, such as esd. The
Mozilla wrapper that seems to offer a way around this doesn't appear to
work for me.
My current solution is to change the default behavior of esd from
"auto_spawn" being set to off to being on and, as I'm using gnome,
either disabling sound in gnome altogether or killing the esd process
that is started once I log in. This solution is satisfactory for
the moment but took quite awhile to figure out. Likewise, I find
it strange that things didn't work right out of the box (and if
I've had such a problem with it, why not many others?). Where do you
suggest filing a bug report: with Debian, Mozilla, Macromedia, . .
. ?
Thanks to you and everyone else for the replies with insights and
feedback.
Paul
--
Paul Yeatman (858) 534-9896 pyea...@ucsd.edu
==================================
==Proudly brought to you by Mutt==
==================================
Carl Johnson
> I now am convinced that the problem resides with the appearance that
> Flash accesses /dev/dsp directly creating a conflict anytime another
> application has already locked the dsp device first, such as esd. The
> Mozilla wrapper that seems to offer a way around this doesn't appear to
> work for me.
>
> My current solution is to change the default behavior of esd from
> "auto_spawn" being set to off to being on and, as I'm using gnome,
> either disabling sound in gnome altogether or killing the esd process
> that is started once I log in. This solution is satisfactory for
> the moment but took quite awhile to figure out.
Have you tried the '-as' option of esd? I use 'esd -as 2' to require
esd to release /dev/dsp 2 seconds after it finishes, so other devices
can use it. That allows me to use programs with both esd and /dev/dsp
output, but not at the same time.
--
Carl Johnson ca...@peak.org
Paul Yeatman
>
> > I now am convinced that the problem resides with the appearance that
> > Flash accesses /dev/dsp directly creating a conflict anytime another
> > application has already locked the dsp device first, such as esd. The
> > Mozilla wrapper that seems to offer a way around this doesn't appear to
> > work for me.
> >
> > My current solution is to change the default behavior of esd from
> > "auto_spawn" being set to off to being on and, as I'm using gnome,
> > either disabling sound in gnome altogether or killing the esd process
> > that is started once I log in. This solution is satisfactory for
> > the moment but took quite awhile to figure out.
>
> Have you tried the '-as' option of esd? I use 'esd -as 2' to require
> esd to release /dev/dsp 2 seconds after it finishes, so other devices
> can use it. That allows me to use programs with both esd and /dev/dsp
> output, but not at the same time.
Yes, this is what makes things work for me now and is essentially how
I'm running things although I'm currently using the default of 5
seconds (if I have any problem with this, I might try a shorter time as
you are using). Thanks for offering the suggestion.
The only bummer with this setup is that not all audio calls (that don't
use /dev/dsp directly) starts the esd process automatically. I don't
hear the general Gnome event sounds anymore, for instance, and I'm
assuming that this is because esd is no longer running in the
background and, apparently, they don't start the esd process on their
own. Some people would likely say "good" to this. I kinda miss 'em.
A very minor complaint. I'm happier to have Flash working :)
> --
> Carl Johnson ca...@peak.org
>
>
--
Paul Yeatman (858) 534-9896 pyea...@ucsd.edu
==================================
==Proudly brought to you by Mutt==
==================================
Carl Johnson
> > Have you tried the '-as' option of esd? I use 'esd -as 2' to require
> > esd to release /dev/dsp 2 seconds after it finishes, so other devices
> > can use it. That allows me to use programs with both esd and /dev/dsp
> > output, but not at the same time.
>
> Yes, this is what makes things work for me now and is essentially how
> I'm running things although I'm currently using the default of 5
> seconds (if I have any problem with this, I might try a shorter time as
> you are using). Thanks for offering the suggestion.
>
> The only bummer with this setup is that not all audio calls (that don't
> use /dev/dsp directly) starts the esd process automatically. I don't
> hear the general Gnome event sounds anymore, for instance, and I'm
> assuming that this is because esd is no longer running in the
> background and, apparently, they don't start the esd process on their
> own. Some people would likely say "good" to this. I kinda miss 'em.
> A very minor complaint. I'm happier to have Flash working :)
Something seems to be different about your system, since my esd
process doesn't exit, but simply closes its connection to /dev/dsp.
It sounds like you might be using the '-terminate' option. If you
are, try it without it, but still with the '-as' option. Of course,
just because it satisfies my needs doesn't mean that it will satify
yours.
--
Carl Johnson ca...@peak.org
--
Paul Yeatman
->>In response to your message<<-
--received from Carl Johnson--
Ah, yes I am. Here's what a ps gives
/usr/bin/esd -terminate -nobeeps -as 5 -spawnfd 40
Great, I'll take '-terminate' out, give that a try and see if that
makes any difference. Thanks for the suggestion!
--
Paul Yeatman (858) 534-9896 pyea...@ucsd.edu
==================================
==Proudly brought to you by Mutt==
==================================
Paul Yeatman
Hi, I tried taking "-terminate" out of my esd.conf. I logged out and
back in. Indeed esd was started by Gnome (as I have sound for Gnome
enabled) and without the "-terminate" argument but Flash would not play
correctly in a browser until I killed the esd process. Once I killed
the process, I could play Flash and applications like xmms would start
their own esd process for sound but system/event sounds (from Gnome
and such) could no longer be heard.
Paul
--
Paul Yeatman (858) 534-9896 pyea...@ucsd.edu
==================================
==Proudly brought to you by Mutt==
==================================
Karl E. Jorgensen
> Hi, I tried taking "-terminate" out of my esd.conf. I logged out and
> back in. Indeed esd was started by Gnome (as I have sound for Gnome
> enabled) and without the "-terminate" argument but Flash would not play
> correctly in a browser until I killed the esd process.
Have you tried
$ esdctl off
? That should have the effect of making esd "shut up", and free up
/dev/dsp (might still need -as on esdctl though
$ esdctl on
should "unmute" esd again...
> Once I killed
> the process, I could play Flash and applications like xmms would start
> their own esd process for sound but system/event sounds (from Gnome
> and such) could no longer be heard.
Because you killed the original esd, which the gnome panel (and others)
were connected to...
HTH
--
Karl E. Jørgensen
ka...@jorgensen.com http://karl.jorgensen.com
==== Today's fortune:
You have the body of a 19 year old. Please return it before it gets wrinkled.
Paul Yeatman
>
> On Tue, Aug 03, 2004 at 02:49:24PM -0700, Paul Yeatman wrote:
> > Hi, I tried taking "-terminate" out of my esd.conf. I logged out and
> > back in. Indeed esd was started by Gnome (as I have sound for Gnome
> > enabled) and without the "-terminate" argument but Flash would not play
> > correctly in a browser until I killed the esd process.
>
> Have you tried
> $ esdctl off
> ? That should have the effect of making esd "shut up", and free up
> /dev/dsp (might still need -as on esdctl though
>
> $ esdctl on
> should "unmute" esd again...
>
> > Once I killed
> > the process, I could play Flash and applications like xmms would start
> > their own esd process for sound but system/event sounds (from Gnome
> > and such) could no longer be heard.
>
> Because you killed the original esd, which the gnome panel (and others)
> were connected to...
You are completely right. The real point I meant to make, rather, is
that running esd without the "-terminate" commandline option did not
allow non-esd applications to access /dev/dsp while esd was running and
when esd apps where not being run (at least not in my case which
admittedly seems to be a bit odd compared to others). My message was a
response to Carl Johnson's message in this thread on July 23rd. If I
understood him correctly, he was suggesting that removing the
"-terminate" commandline option for esd would allow esd to continue
running while unlocking the /dev/dsp when not being directly used by
esd (by an esd app, I suppose). Yet, I didn't find this to be true in
my case. Even when I removed the -terminate option when running esd
(thus esd continued to run) I could not use a non-esd audio
application, such as Flash appears to be. Apparently, such non-esd
apps were still not allowed to access /dev/dsp while an esd process
(without the "-terminate" commandline option) was running. The hope
was that the esd process started by Gnome (without the -terminate
option) would continue running (play event sounds) while releasing
/dev/dsp when not being directly used by an esd app so that non-esd
apps (like Flash) could also access /dev/dsp. Yet in my case, I
couldn't successfully play Flash from a web browser until the esd
process was entirely killed (and, thus, no more event sounds).
Paul Yeatman
be running with the "-as" argument (set to 5 in my case) and the dsp
wrapper value for Mozilla (or Firefox) needs to be "none" (as can
be set by 'dpkg-reconfigure mozilla').
EMBELLISHMENT:
I finally found a config that I'm really happy with and want to share
it should it help anyone else.
Thanks for everyone's replies and help in this thread.
The first problem was that Flash would not play and would even crash my
browser. I eventually found out that killing any esd processes would
allow Flash to play. Cool! I was fairly happy with this solution
being only disappointed in that, when killing the esd process(es), I
would no long get any Gnome/system event sounds. The solution I'm
currently using gives me it all, baby! :)
Again, I'm running Sarge and using Gnome with esd for sound. So here's
the deal. Before I login with gdm, I have to start esd myself with the
"-as" argument (with a value of 5 in my case) and with no "-terminate"
argument (thanks Carl!). If I let Gnome start esd for me upon
login, it won't use the "-as" argument (anyone know how to change
this?). Now I can log in to Gnome with gdm. The Gnome "sound server"
will use the existing esd process so I get event sounds (and with no
esd "-terminate" argument nor needing to kill esd to play Flash, I
continue to get them). Audio apps work as expected and as long as I
have the dsp wrapper value for Mozilla and Firefox set to "none"
(instead of "auto" or "esddsp"), Flash works! This seems to be how it
should have been all along. I think the real problem is that the whole
dsp wrapper thing (asked by debconf with Mozilla or Firefox
installation) doesn't work. If this worked as I believe it is supposed
to, I don't think this ever would have been an issue. As I believe it
doesn't work, I have to use "-as" with esd and no dsp wrapper with
Mozilla as a work around.
Paul
->>In response to your message<<-
--received from Paul Yeatman--