Bug#585149: iceweasel: No sound in videos using the html5 <video> tag

[Dave Witbrodt]

Package: iceweasel
Version: 10.0-2
Followup-For: Bug #585149


I am experiencing the same difficulties with Sid.  I tried playing a
video at linux.com, on this page for example:

    http://video.linux.com/videos

and all of the videos play fine except for lack of sound.  If I choose a
particular video, say

    http://video.linux.com/videos/allison-randal-fallacy-of-the-zero-sum-game

then I can get more info from Iceweasel by clicking Tools -> Page Info,
then the Media tab.  I can scroll down, looking for type "Video" until I
find this

    http://video.linux.com/media/com_lfvideos/videos/linuxcon-vancouver-day-3-1-1322879147/Day3-1.webm

The info for Location, Type ("video/webm"), Size, and Dimensions looks fine, but the
entry for Associated Text has this:

    Sorry, your browser can't play this video


I Googled a bit, and found a page

    http://www.chipwreck.de/blog/2010/03/01/html-5-video-dom-attributes-and-events

which lists some error codes related to HTML5

    Error codes

    If an error occured, you can read the error code to react — these error
    codes are currently supported:

    MEDIA_ERR_ABORTED (1) User aborted video playback

    MEDIA_ERR_NETWORK (2) Network error (could not read the stream)

    MEDIA_ERR_DECODE (3) Decoding error, video is broken or the codec makes
    problems

    MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED (4) The format is not supported

There is a block of example code which explains why Google found this
page:

    var myvid = document.getElementById('vid');
    if (myvid.error) {
     switch (myvid.error.code) {
[...]
       case MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED:
	  alert("Sorry, your browser can't play this video.");
	  break;
     }
    }

I have been able to play WebM on other sites, having tested it by
searching for HTML5 video test pages.  At first I thought they were NOT
working, until I realized that the volume level was defaulting to 0;
when I right-clicked and made the controls visible, then slid the volume
up, sound was fine.  The problem with the linux.com videos is not the
volume control, though, as would seem apparent from the error message
printed by the Page Info -> Media dialog window; adjusting the volume
has no effect.

I see that you have asked folks for their system-wide 'iceweaselrc'
contents; here is mine

    $ cat /etc/iceweasel/iceweaselrc
    # which /dev/dsp wrapper to use
    ICEWEASEL_DSP="none"

I only use ALSA for my sound (no PulseAudio or other sound daemon),
though I do have 'alsa-oss' installed.  My understanding was that
Firefox/Iceweasel moved its default sound system to ALSA long ago.  I
doubt that it is significant, but I seem to have "dsp" and "dsp1"
devices, but no "dsp0":

    $ ls -d /dev/dsp*
    /dev/dsp
    /dev/dsp1

Seems strange that linux.com results in no sound on Debian Iceweasel,
but the HTML5 test pages work fine.


HTH,
Dave W.


-- Package-specific info:

-- Extensions information
Name: Default themefalse
Location: /usr/lib/iceweasel/extensions/{972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}
Status: enabled

Name: DownThemAll! extensionfalse

-- Addons package information

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (350, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.4-2+dwlocal1 (SMP w/4 CPU cores; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages iceweasel depends on:
ii  debianutils         4.2.1
ii  fontconfig          2.8.0-3.1
ii  libc6               2.13-26
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0  2.24.0-2
ii  libglib2.0-0        2.30.2-6
ii  libgtk2.0-0         2.24.9-1
ii  libnspr4-0d         4.8.9-1
ii  libstdc++6          4.6.2-12
ii  procps              1:3.3.2-3
ii  xulrunner-10.0      10.0-2

iceweasel recommends no packages.

Versions of packages iceweasel suggests:
ii  libgssapi-krb5-2    1.10+dfsg~beta1-2
ii  mozplugger          <none>
ii  ttf-lyx             2.0.2-1
ii  ttf-mathematica4.1  <none>
ii  xfonts-mathml       4

Versions of packages xulrunner-10.0 depends on:
ii  libasound2                1.0.24.1-4
ii  libatk1.0-0               2.2.0-2
ii  libbz2-1.0                1.0.6-1
ii  libc6                     2.13-26
ii  libcairo2                 1.10.2-6.2
ii  libdbus-1-3               1.4.16-1
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2          0.98-1
ii  libevent-2.0-5            2.0.16-stable-1
ii  libfontconfig1            2.8.0-3.1
ii  libfreetype6              2.4.8-1
ii  libgcc1                   1:4.6.2-12
ii  libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0        2.24.0-2
ii  libglib2.0-0              2.30.2-6
ii  libgtk2.0-0               2.24.9-1
ii  libhunspell-1.3-0         1.3.2-4
ii  libjpeg8                  8d-1
ii  libmozjs10d               10.0-2
ii  libnotify4                0.7.4-1
ii  libnspr4-0d               4.8.9-1
ii  libnss3-1d                3.13.1.with.ckbi.1.88-1
ii  libpango1.0-0             1.29.4-2
ii  libpixman-1-0             0.24.2-1
ii  libreadline6              6.2-8
ii  libsqlite3-0              3.7.9-3
ii  libstartup-notification0  0.12-1
ii  libstdc++6                4.6.2-12
ii  libvpx1                   1.0.0-1
ii  libx11-6                  2:1.4.4-4
ii  libxext6                  2:1.3.0-3
ii  libxrender1               1:0.9.6-2
ii  libxt6                    1:1.1.1-2
ii  zlib1g                    1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3

Versions of packages xulrunner-10.0 suggests:
ii  libcanberra0  0.28-3
ii  libgnomeui-0  2.24.5-2

-- no debconf information