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apulse firefox crashes firefox

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  apulse firefox crashes firefox Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> - 2026-09-09 09:00 -0300
    Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox "Stanislav N. aka pztrn" <pztrn@oldproto.invalid> - 2026-09-10 07:27 +0500
      Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> - 2026-09-10 11:39 -0300
    Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-10 03:26 +0000
      Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> - 2026-09-10 11:13 -0300
        Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-14 23:12 +0000
          Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox R Daneel Olivaw <Danni@hyperspace.vogon.gov.invalid> - 2026-09-16 18:38 +0200
          Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> - 2026-09-16 12:23 -0300
            Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-17 04:13 +0000
              Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> - 2026-09-22 11:54 -0300
        Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2026-09-18 08:12 +1000
          Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> - 2026-09-22 11:57 -0300
            Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2026-09-23 07:33 +1000
              Re: apulse firefox crashes firefox Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> - 2026-09-22 20:24 -0300

#18173 — apulse firefox crashes firefox

I use ALSA on this GNU Void---see my ~/asoundrc below---, so in order to
be able to get sound out of Firefox, I run it with the program apulse
(see an introduction to apulse below).  I've noticed that if I unplug my
USB soundbar, Firefox ends up crashing after being unable to open the
device.  It crashes as soon as a sound is emitted such as some
notification popping up or trying to play music from some website.

Here's the crash as seen by a terminal:

--8<-------------------------------------------------------->8---
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:339:(snd_dlobj_cache_get0) [error.core] Cannot open shared library libasound_module_pcm_fallback.so (/usr/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_fallback.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
[apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: can't open playback device "default". Error code -6 (No such device or address)
[apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: failed to open ALSA device. Apulse does no resampling or format conversion, leaving that task to ALSA plugins. Ensure that selected device is capable of playing a particular sample format at a particular rate. They have to be supported by either hardware directly, or by "plug" and "dmix" ALSA plugins which will perform required conversions on CPU.
[...]
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Segmentation fault         apulse firefox
%Exiting due to channel error.
--8<-------------------------------------------------------->8---

(*) My ~/.asoundrc

pcm.dmixer {
    type dmix
    ipc_key 1024
    slave {
        pcm "hw:2,0"
        format S32_LE
        rate 48000
    }
}

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "dmixer"
}

ctl.!default {
    type hw
    card 0
}

(*) The apulse manual

NAME
       apulse - The PulseAudio emulator for ALSA

SYNOPSIS
       apulse <program-name> [program-parameters]...

DESCRIPTION
       The program provides an alternative partial implementation of the
       PulseAudio API. It consists of a loader script and a number of shared
       libraries with the same names as from original PulseAudio, so
       applications could dynamically load them and think they are talking to
       PulseAudio. Internally, no separate sound mixing daemon is used.
       Instead, apulse relies on ALSA's dmix, dsnoop, and plug plugins to
       handle multiple sound sources and capture streams running at the same
       time. dmix plugin muxes multiple playback streams; dsnoop plugin allow
       multiple applications to capture from a single microphone; and plug
       plugin transparently converts audio between various sample formats,
       sample rates and channel numbers. For more than a decade now, ALSA
       comes with these plugins enabled and configured by default.

       apulse wasn't designed to be a drop-in replacement of PulseAudio. It's
       pointless, since that will be just reimplementation of original
       PulseAudio, with the same client-daemon architecture, required by the
       complete feature set.  Instead, only parts of the API that are crucial
       to specific applications are implemented. That's why there is a loader
       script, named apulse. It updates value of LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment
       variable to point also to the directory where apulse's libraries are
       installed, making them available to the application.

       Name comes from names of both ALSA and PulseAudio. As aoss was a
       compatibility layer between OSS programs and ALSA, apulse was designed
       to be compatibility layer between PulseAudio applications and ALSA.

ENVIRONMENT
       The following environment variables can be used to configure the
       devices used by apulse. Try hw:0,0, plughw:0,0 and the like.  Refer to
       the ALSA user guide for a full list of device names.

       APULSE_CAPTURE_DEVICE: Can be used to configure the capture device.

       APULSE_PLAYBACK_DEVICE: Can be used to configure the playback device.

RETURN VALUE
       apulse is a simple shell wrapper script that calls exec on the program
       given in parameters. Except for cases when the wrapper itself fails to
       load, return value is the return value of that program.

EXAMPLE
       Run a newer Firefox browser with fake PulseAudio:

            apulse firefox

AUTHORS
       apulse was written by Rinat Ibragimov in 2014-2017.

(*) By the way

As the manual says itself, apulse is merely a shell script.  Here it is:

--8<-------------------------------------------------------->8---
#!/bin/sh

APULSEPATH="/usr/lib/apulse"

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$APULSEPATH${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH} exec "$@"
--8<-------------------------------------------------------->8---

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#18174

09.09.2026 17:00, Anton Antimo wrote:
> ALSA lib dlmisc.c:339:(snd_dlobj_cache_get0) [error.core] Cannot open shared library libasound_module_pcm_fallback.so (/usr/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_fallback.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
> [apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: can't open playback device "default". Error code -6 (No such device or address)
> [apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: failed to open ALSA device. Apulse does no resampling or format conversion, leaving that task to ALSA plugins. Ensure that selected device is capable of playing a particular sample format at a particular rate. They have to be supported by either hardware directly, or by "plug" and "dmix" ALSA plugins which will perform required conversions on CPU.

Does /usr/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_fallback.so exist on your system?

-- 
WBR, Stanislav Nikitin a.k.a. pztrn.

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#18176

"Stanislav N. aka pztrn" <pztrn@oldproto.invalid> writes:

> 09.09.2026 17:00, Anton Antimo wrote:
>> ALSA lib dlmisc.c:339:(snd_dlobj_cache_get0) [error.core] Cannot open shared library libasound_module_pcm_fallback.so (/usr/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_fallback.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
>> [apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: can't open playback device "default". Error code -6 (No such device or address)
>> [apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: failed to open ALSA device. Apulse does no resampling or format conversion, leaving that task to ALSA plugins. Ensure that selected device is capable of playing a particular sample format at a particular rate. They have to be supported by either hardware directly, or by "plug" and "dmix" ALSA plugins which will perform required conversions on CPU.
>
> Does /usr/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_fallback.so exist on your system?

No, it doesn't.

%pwd
/usr/lib/alsa-lib

%ls
libasound_module_ctl_pipewire.so  libasound_module_pcm_pipewire.so
%

Should I have it?  

Oh, good thinking.  You probably identified how I can avoid the crash.

Interesting---I don't know what I did here, but Firefox still crashes
when I keep device 2 in my .asoundrc, but I don't see the error message
above any longer.  The error I now see is below.  (Removing my .asoundrc
completely means I don't listen to audio anymore, but Firefox doesn't
crash anymore.)

(*) The new error when Firefox crashes

ALSA lib confmisc.c:165:(snd_config_get_card) [error.core] Cannot get card index for 2
[apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: can't open playback device "default". Error code -2 (No such file or directory)
[apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: failed to open ALSA device. Apulse does no resampling or format conversion, leaving that task to ALSA plugins. Ensure that selected device is capable of playing a particular sample format at a particular rate. They have to be supported by either hardware directly, or by "plug" and "dmix" ALSA plugins which will perform required conversions on CPU.
[Child 24147, MediaDecoderStateMachine #2] WARNING: 7f7ac3770780 OpenCubeb() failed to init cubeb: file dom/media/AudioStream.cpp:279
[Child 24147, MediaDecoderStateMachine #2] WARNING: Decoder=7f7ac9119300 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp:4630
[Child 24147, MediaDecoderStateMachine #2] WARNING: Decoder=7f7ac9119300 Decode error: NS_ERROR_DOM_MEDIA_MEDIASINK_ERR (0x806e000b) - OnMediaSinkAudioError: file dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachineBase.cpp:168
JavaScript warning: https://music.youtube.com/s/player/8c3fda2d/player_es6.vflset/en_US/base.js, line 7989: This error message will be blank when privacy.resistFingerprinting = true.  If it is really necessary, please add it to the whitelist in MediaError::GetMessage: OnMediaSinkAudioError
JavaScript warning: https://music.youtube.com/s/player/8c3fda2d/player_es6.vflset/en_US/base.js, line 7989: This error message will be blank when privacy.resistFingerprinting = true.  If it is really necessary, please add it to the whitelist in MediaError::GetMessage: OnMediaSinkAudioError
ALSA lib confmisc.c:165:(snd_config_get_card) [error.core] Cannot get card index for 2
[apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: can't open playback device "default". Error code -2 (No such file or directory)
[apulse] [error] do_connect_pcm: failed to open ALSA device. Apulse does no resampling or format conversion, leaving that task to ALSA plugins. Ensure that selected device is capable of playing a particular sample format at a particular rate. They have to be supported by either hardware directly, or by "plug" and "dmix" ALSA plugins which will perform required conversions on CPU.
[Child 24147, MediaDecoderStateMachine #2] WARNING: 7f7ac6035500 OpenCubeb() failed to init cubeb: file dom/media/AudioStream.cpp:279
[Child 24147, MediaDecoderStateMachine #2] WARNING: Decoder=7f7ac5bbaa00 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp:4630
[Child 24147, MediaDecoderStateMachine #2] WARNING: Decoder=7f7ac5bbaa00 Decode error: NS_ERROR_DOM_MEDIA_MEDIASINK_ERR (0x806e000b) - OnMediaSinkAudioError: file dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachineBase.cpp:168
JavaScript warning: https://music.youtube.com/s/player/8c3fda2d/player_es6.vflset/en_US/base.js, line 7989: This error message will be blank when privacy.resistFingerprinting = true.  If it is really necessary, please add it to the whitelist in MediaError::GetMessage: OnMediaSinkAudioError
JavaScript warning: https://music.youtube.com/s/player/8c3fda2d/player_es6.vflset/en_US/base.js, line 7989: This error message will be blank when privacy.resistFingerprinting = true.  If it is really necessary, please add it to the whitelist in MediaError::GetMessage: OnMediaSinkAudioError
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Segmentation fault         apulse firefox
%

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#18175

On Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:00:11 -0300, Anton Antimo wrote:

> I use ALSA on this GNU Void---see my ~/asoundrc below---, so in
> order to be able to get sound out of Firefox, I run it with the
> program apulse

I don’t understand why that’s necessary. PulseAudio provides its own
ALSA emulation on top of the real ALSA. And PulseAudio is obsolete
anyway, replaced with PipeWire which is functionally compatible and
also provides corresponding services for video.

I’ve never had audio problems on Firefox, that I can recall, to do
with PulseAudio. And certainly not with PipeWire.

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#18177

Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

> On Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:00:11 -0300, Anton Antimo wrote:
>
>> I use ALSA on this GNU Void---see my ~/asoundrc below---, so in
>> order to be able to get sound out of Firefox, I run it with the
>> program apulse
>
> I don’t understand why that’s necessary. PulseAudio provides its own
> ALSA emulation on top of the real ALSA. And PulseAudio is obsolete
> anyway, replaced with PipeWire which is functionally compatible and
> also provides corresponding services for video.
>
> I’ve never had audio problems on Firefox, that I can recall, to do
> with PulseAudio. And certainly not with PipeWire.

I agree---if I were running pulseaudio or pipewire.  I'm running no such
daemon.  My understanding is that Firefox is programmed to speak to
PulseAudio, not ALSA, but then apulse reroutes the calls to ALSA and now
I don't need pulseaudio or pipewire.

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#18189

On Thu, 10 Sep 2026 11:13:16 -0300, Anton Antimo wrote:

> Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>
>> I’ve never had audio problems on Firefox, that I can recall, to do
>> with PulseAudio. And certainly not with PipeWire.
>
> I agree---if I were running pulseaudio or pipewire.

Why not run that, then?

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#18197

Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Sep 2026 11:13:16 -0300, Anton Antimo wrote:
> 
>> Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>>
>>> I’ve never had audio problems on Firefox, that I can recall, to do
>>> with PulseAudio. And certainly not with PipeWire.
>>
>> I agree---if I were running pulseaudio or pipewire.
> 
> Why not run that, then?
> 

I run what my Distribution configures, and it changed a release or two ago.

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#18198

Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

> On Thu, 10 Sep 2026 11:13:16 -0300, Anton Antimo wrote:
>
>> Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>>
>>> I’ve never had audio problems on Firefox, that I can recall, to do
>>> with PulseAudio. And certainly not with PipeWire.
>>
>> I agree---if I were running pulseaudio or pipewire.
>
> Why not run that, then?

I've been living just fine without them.  I've been listening to audio
in high-quality, watching videos, and that means I don't need any of
these services.

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#18199

On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:23:36 -0300, Anton Antimo wrote:

> Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
> 
>> On Thu, 10 Sep 2026 11:13:16 -0300, Anton Antimo wrote:
>>
>>> Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>>>
>>>> I’ve never had audio problems on Firefox, that I can recall, to do
>>>> with PulseAudio. And certainly not with PipeWire.
>>>
>>> I agree---if I were running pulseaudio or pipewire.
>>
>> Why not run that, then?
> 
> I've been living just fine without them.

Except for this problem.

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#18223

Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

> On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:23:36 -0300, Anton Antimo wrote:
>
>> Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>> 
>>> On Thu, 10 Sep 2026 11:13:16 -0300, Anton Antimo wrote:
>>>
>>>> Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> I’ve never had audio problems on Firefox, that I can recall, to do
>>>>> with PulseAudio. And certainly not with PipeWire.
>>>>
>>>> I agree---if I were running pulseaudio or pipewire.
>>>
>>> Why not run that, then?
>> 
>> I've been living just fine without them.
>
> Except for this problem.

But that's Firefox's problem, not the audio system.

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#18200

Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> wrote:
> Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>> On Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:00:11 -0300, Anton Antimo wrote:
>>> I use ALSA on this GNU Void---see my ~/asoundrc below---, so in
>>> order to be able to get sound out of Firefox, I run it with the
>>> program apulse
>>
>> I don't understand why that's necessary. PulseAudio provides its own
>> ALSA emulation on top of the real ALSA. And PulseAudio is obsolete
>> anyway, replaced with PipeWire which is functionally compatible and
>> also provides corresponding services for video.
> 
> I agree---if I were running pulseaudio or pipewire.  I'm running no such
> daemon.  My understanding is that Firefox is programmed to speak to
> PulseAudio, not ALSA,

Actually ALSA support can still be enabled when Firefox is compiled
by uncommenting "ac_add_options --enable-audio-backends=alsa" in
mozconfig. Unfortunately some distros don't do that when packaging
Firefox, nor do Mozilla themselves for their own Linux binaries.

> but then apulse reroutes the calls to ALSA and now I don't need
> pulseaudio or pipewire.

That's probably still easier the compiling Firefox yourself if you
can't use a package built with ALSA enabled. Although you could try
asking the Firefox package maintainer for your distro to enable
ALSA support in their builds.

-- 
__          __
#_ < |\| |< _#

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#18224

not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) writes:

> Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> wrote:
>> Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:
>>> On Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:00:11 -0300, Anton Antimo wrote:
>>>> I use ALSA on this GNU Void---see my ~/asoundrc below---, so in
>>>> order to be able to get sound out of Firefox, I run it with the
>>>> program apulse
>>>
>>> I don't understand why that's necessary. PulseAudio provides its own
>>> ALSA emulation on top of the real ALSA. And PulseAudio is obsolete
>>> anyway, replaced with PipeWire which is functionally compatible and
>>> also provides corresponding services for video.
>> 
>> I agree---if I were running pulseaudio or pipewire.  I'm running no such
>> daemon.  My understanding is that Firefox is programmed to speak to
>> PulseAudio, not ALSA,
>
> Actually ALSA support can still be enabled when Firefox is compiled
> by uncommenting "ac_add_options --enable-audio-backends=alsa" in
> mozconfig. Unfortunately some distros don't do that when packaging
> Firefox, nor do Mozilla themselves for their own Linux binaries.
>
>> but then apulse reroutes the calls to ALSA and now I don't need
>> pulseaudio or pipewire.
>
> That's probably still easier the compiling Firefox yourself if you
> can't use a package built with ALSA enabled. Although you could try
> asking the Firefox package maintainer for your distro to enable
> ALSA support in their builds.

Thanks for the all the info.  It seems that apulse does it well for me.
I'm good with it.  But I don't think Firefox should crash for whatever
reason---as no program should.

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#18226

Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> wrote:
> not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) writes:
>> Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> wrote:
>>> My understanding is that Firefox is programmed to speak to
>>> PulseAudio, not ALSA,
>>
>> Actually ALSA support can still be enabled when Firefox is compiled
>> by uncommenting "ac_add_options --enable-audio-backends=alsa" in
>> mozconfig. Unfortunately some distros don't do that when packaging
>> Firefox, nor do Mozilla themselves for their own Linux binaries.
>>
>>> but then apulse reroutes the calls to ALSA and now I don't need
>>> pulseaudio or pipewire.
>>
>> That's probably still easier the compiling Firefox yourself if you
>> can't use a package built with ALSA enabled. Although you could try
>> asking the Firefox package maintainer for your distro to enable
>> ALSA support in their builds.
> 
> Thanks for the all the info.  It seems that apulse does it well for me.
> I'm good with it.  But I don't think Firefox should crash for whatever
> reason---as no program should.

It could be apulse that's crashing, not Firefox. Since apulse works
as a library it could do that.

If you want to help the cause of software stability, best contact
the apulse developer/s. But I'd argue the real bug is having ALSA
support disabled in Firefox in the first place. If you can convince
the person who packages Firefox for your distro to enable ALSA
support in their builds, then you could cut out this needless
complexity entirely.

-- 
__          __
#_ < |\| |< _#

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#18227

not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) writes:

> Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> wrote:
>> not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) writes:
>>> Anton Antimo <anton@safunu.org> wrote:
>>>> My understanding is that Firefox is programmed to speak to
>>>> PulseAudio, not ALSA,
>>>
>>> Actually ALSA support can still be enabled when Firefox is compiled
>>> by uncommenting "ac_add_options --enable-audio-backends=alsa" in
>>> mozconfig. Unfortunately some distros don't do that when packaging
>>> Firefox, nor do Mozilla themselves for their own Linux binaries.
>>>
>>>> but then apulse reroutes the calls to ALSA and now I don't need
>>>> pulseaudio or pipewire.
>>>
>>> That's probably still easier the compiling Firefox yourself if you
>>> can't use a package built with ALSA enabled. Although you could try
>>> asking the Firefox package maintainer for your distro to enable
>>> ALSA support in their builds.
>> 
>> Thanks for the all the info.  It seems that apulse does it well for me.
>> I'm good with it.  But I don't think Firefox should crash for whatever
>> reason---as no program should.
>
> It could be apulse that's crashing, not Firefox. Since apulse works
> as a library it could do that.

You're right.  The bug could be in one of apulse's library.

> If you want to help the cause of software stability, best contact
> the apulse developer/s. But I'd argue the real bug is having ALSA
> support disabled in Firefox in the first place. If you can convince
> the person who packages Firefox for your distro to enable ALSA
> support in their builds, then you could cut out this needless
> complexity entirely.

Okay.  I don't have an opinion there.  Thanks for your thoughts.

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