Fixing Flash sound, the Better Way

[NeoChaosX]

I've noticed that a common sound problem a lot of users have is when they're browsing the web, there's no sound from Flash animations. For some, this is a blessing, but for people who do browse sites that use the stuff (Homestar Runner immediately comes to mind), sound is necessity. So I cooked up this quick guide on how to fix it.

First, off, I'll say that one common solution I've seen thrown around is

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libesd.so.0 /usr/lib/libesd.so.1

This usually works in getting Flash sound to work. However, in some configs, this causes Flash sound to go out of sync. If this happens, delete /usr/lib/libesd.so.1 and follow these steps...

1) Set up your system to use ALSA dmix mixing and AOSS emulation according to this thread.

2) Install the alsa-oss package.

sudo apt-get install alsa-oss

3) Open up /etc/mozilla-firefox/mozilla-firefoxrc in gedit or whatever your text editor of choice is. Then, modify this line

FIREFOX_DSP="auto"

to

FIREFOX_DSP="aoss"

What this does it let Flash run through ALSA's OSS emulation. So Flash sound will not only be in sync (because it isn't forced through another layer of sound like ESD), but it will also play even if you have other apps that use sound running in the background.

Hope this helps.

[Gandalf]

I just want to add that i had problems back in preview using FIREFOX_DSP="aoss" , firefox used to hang when i try to quit the page with the animation...

[jarrett.wold]

I just tried this method, and if I attempt to pause any audio output et al with AOSS as the sink, it locks the browser. So back to Auto for me.

[NeoChaosX]

I've never had this problem. jarrett.world, did you try the ESD symlink as well?

[John.Michael.Kane]

Does this file need to be reove libesd-alsa0?
Also do you select oss as the output in put or alsa for both

[NeoChaosX]

libesd-alsa0 is necessary for the AOSS output to work.

[John.Michael.Kane]

thanks

[jarrett.wold]

I didn't actually, I just tried your method, the symlink seemed like a bit of a hack to me

I've never had this problem. jarrett.world, did you try the ESD symlink as well?

[pizzach]

NeoChaosX, if I was 100% sure you weren't a guy, I would kiss you! But I'm not. So um...I won't. But I'm still really happy. I'm on a 100% alsa setup now. Now there are no sound lags in flash. And also, mplayer sync way better now. It was okay before, but now it SYNCS. Happiness has arrived! And is ensuing. Also, I believe sound quality is higher.

I've noticed that a common sound problem a lot of users have is when they're browsing the web, there's no sound from Flash animations. For some, this is a blessing, but for people who do browse sites that use the stuff (Homestar Runner immediately comes to mind), sound is necessity. So I cooked up this quick guide on how to fix it.

First, off, I'll say that one common solution I've seen thrown around is

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libesd.so.0 /usr/lib/libesd.so.1

This usually works in getting Flash sound to work. However, in some configs, this causes Flash sound to go out of sync. If this happens, delete /usr/lib/libesd.so.1 and follow these steps...

1) Set up your system to use ALSA dmix mixing and AOSS emulation according to this thread.

2) Install the alsa-oss package.

sudo apt-get install alsa-oss

3) Open up /etc/mozilla-firefox/mozilla-firefoxrc in gedit or whatever your text editor of choice is. Then, modify this line

FIREFOX_DSP="auto"

to

FIREFOX_DSP="aoss"

What this does it let Flash run through ALSA's OSS emulation. So Flash sound will not only be in sync (because it isn't forced through another layer of sound like ESD), but it will also play even if you have other apps that use sound running in the background.

Hope this helps.

[kwaanens]

This did not resolve sound in flash for me. The only change was that Firefox freezes when shut down with aoss enabled.

- Ketil