Why most Puppies can't select the desired microphone when running Firefox.....

[mikewalsh]

Evening, gang.

The subject is, TBH, as stated in the title, and has been "bugging" me for a long time. However, I thought I might as well post the explanation here for the benefit of all.

The whole reason for this is quite simple. Ever since the switch to PulseAudio for sound way back in the mists of time - with FF 53 - in the interests of simplicity, the Mozilla devs decided to leave device selection to PulseAudio's "pavucontrol" GUI. And this is why only very new Puppies - which now use PA, OOTB - will be able to properly make this user-defined selection. Because Mozilla is "passing the buck" for device selection onto a completely different application.....and it's expected that you will have already pre-selected the appropriate component before even firing-up the browser.

https://superuser.com/questions/1567541 ... fox-ubuntu

This unfortunately leaves traditional, ALSA-only Puppies out in the cold. Because 'apulse' is only an emulator library for basic functionality. And although you can install 'pavucontrol' as a standalone item, without the 'full' PulseAudio it won't actually DO anything.

Chromium-based browsers have always been able to make this selection within the browser itself.

Hope this clarifies matters for some of you.

Mike.

[fredx181]

Ever since the switch to PulseAudio for sound way back in the mists of time - with FF 53 - in the interests of simplicity, the Mozilla devs decided to leave device selection to PulseAudio's "pavucontrol" GUI.

Perhaps it's different with the Firefox that @ozsouth presented, built without pulse dependency ? https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=4237
(edit: didn't test, but I think then you can select and adjust mic in alsamixer or retrovol)
Also, the Firefox-ESR builds from Debian work with plain alsa (no apulse needed), e.g. https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/firefox-esr

[mikewalsh]

@fredx181 :-

No idea, Fred, but I won't argue the point.

I've recently set-up a new install of Tahrpup64. Modified with Busterpup's glibc 2.28, and running Xenialpup's k4.9.58 kernel - I need to run a 4-series or newer to get sound on this HP; 3-series don't recognise the audio chip, 'cos it didn't exist when they were 'current'. I've also built and am running the official Nvidia 460 driver via shinobar's GetNvidia, using the kernel sources from Xenialpup64 (quite surprised it worked, but also rather pleased!)

Last night I built the new ESR release, FF115 esr, into a portable. Amazingly, given the age of most Tahrpup components, this is running incredibly stable on here. Nearly 24 hrs in, it hasn't crashed once.....yet (fingers crossed). I'm not a regular Firefox user, as you know, but if 115 esr continues to perform like it currently is, it may well get more use than it ever has before.....

The microphone issue is not a deal-breaker, just a long-standing niggle. I have workarounds in place for most of my issues, including running certain apps from a chroot if & when necessary/required. It'll do me.......daft as it may seem to some folks. (What can I say? I just enjoy playing around with older Puppies!)

Mike.