Mozilla drops ALSA support starting with FireFox 52

[retired1af]

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1345661

Not sure what we want to do about this. Rumor has it Firefox can be recompiled with ALSA support put back in, but from what I'm reading in that whole train wreck of replies, it may break more things.

Where are we at with Pulse Audio support within the distro?

[overthere]

well..skype drops alsa..suse drops alsa..both owned by you know who, and most of its users use firefox..likely get patched up like flash. which means firefox on linux is dead...crap

[arkaland]

 :)You might want to take a serious look at the PaleMoon browser. I don't know how good the 64-bit version is, but the latest 32-bit release (27.2.1) is excellent. If you looked at in the past, you should try it [again]. This latest release is definitely the best one yet IMHO. I've been using it since 2014, and never once did I seriously consider returning to Firefox. It was originally forked from Firefox 24, so it gives you the very best of what Firefox once was (but it's also very well maintained & up-to-date). Extensions can be added, and ALSA sound (as well as OSS v.4) works just fine (so does the Flash plugin). Here's the URL:
http://www.palemoon.org/
Check it out. It sure beats Google Chrome & similar monstrosities.

[overthere]

Actually, Vector includes pulseaudio so firefox 52 should work fine..and you can even sign into netfix..well it includes eme anyway...I just downloaded the 52 pkg from firefox which runs in a folder and sound worked on youtube but could not sign into netfix...perhaps it needs to be installed. or 32bit does not work. This is though an issue for some linux and will be lots of unhappy campers

[retired1af]

Actually, Vector includes pulseaudio so firefox 52 should work fine..and you can even sign into netfix..well it includes eme anyway...I just downloaded the 52 pkg from firefox which runs in a folder and sound worked on youtube but could not sign into netfix...perhaps it needs to be installed. or 32bit does not work. This is though an issue for some linux and will be lots of unhappy campers

You need Flash in order to sign into Netflix. And if I recall, Netflix doesn't check for the latest "Linux version". It checks for the latest and greatest Windows version.

We're working on trying to get Pepperflash to work, which should give us a temporary workaround until Flash is dropped completely.

[nightflier]

I just tested FF 52.0.2 on VL 7.2 Light B2.1 by downloading it from mozilla.com, extracting it to /opt and running /opt/firefox/firefox

No flash is installed.
Logged in to Pandora and music plays fine.
Logged in to Netflix, but I don't have a streaming account so can't say how that works.

[nightflier]

If you absolutely have to have flash, this method still works:
http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=18866.0

[overthere]

Is that 32 or 64 bit?
my understanding is that firefox uses eme, widevine and html5 and one can use netflix at least on 64 bit. on 32 bit I think you have to still use flash and some other tweaks like a spoofer. flash 25 is available on pkg.org for slackware..but I am not sure what other tweaks are required...will try on 64 bit without flash and see what happens. any one know what the 32bit requires?

[nightflier]

My test was using 32 bit.

[overthere]

The original post was regarding firefox dropping alsa, and on Vector linux 7.2 appears puse audio is included so firefox 52 should and does have sound.

I extracted firefox 52.0.2 from mozilla to /opt as nightflier posted, then added a link to open as user from fluxbox menu. or you could use an icon.

before opening firefox I deleted the ./mozilla folder from the home directory.

 I then opened firefox, created a link for netflix and signed in to netflix. it ask to apply drm for the site ( or you can toggle from preferences/content). widevine was installed.(a pop up said to try the site later as it was installing.

I then reopened the browser and signed into netflix and started watching a show.

deleting the ./mozilla folder from home solved the previous error on netflix that I was not using an official mozilla browser.

this is on vector linux light 32 bit without flash listed in the plugins. On acer one netbook with 1 gig ram. I was also able to watch youtube videos. I could benefit from a little more ram.

as flash may be required for some sites or users I suggest using the latest flash-plugin 25. I am not sure how to install it to firefox in this particular situation.

edit: actually all I did was install flash 25 with installpkg and now can watch video on sites that require flash.

thought I would update my findings...Sorry for going off topic.

[nightflier]

Nice! Good to hear things are working.