[tbb-bugs] #29360 [Applications/Tor Browser]: Tor-Browser Linux: no audio playback (pulseaudio)

Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki blackhole at torproject.org
Thu Feb 7 19:14:45 UTC 2019


#29360: Tor-Browser Linux: no audio playback (pulseaudio)
--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------
 Reporter:  tries                     |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  defect                    |         Status:  needs_information
 Priority:  Medium                    |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                    |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                            |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                            |         Points:
 Reviewer:                            |        Sponsor:
--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------

Comment (by tries):

 One way to reproduce this (existing installation where audio is working):
 - in the Tor-Browser installation filder (.../Browser/) remove the
 pulsaudio related files & directories
 `rm -rf  .pulse-cookie .pulse .esd_auth`
 - start some other application that plays audio (and starts an pulseaudiod
 instance), e.g. xmms
 - ensure that audio is played OK
 - start tor-browser
 - go to some URL that plays some audio content (e.g. /www.audiocheck.net)
 - tor-browser tries to launch an pulseaudio instance (which fails as there
 is already a running instance) and recreates the above removed files.
 - the above described error is triggered (warnings about "OpenCubeb()
 failed to init", etc)
 - from now on, audio will always fail to play.

 After copying the above files from the real users HOME to .../Browser/ and
 restarting tor-browser,  audio playback is working again.


 I also tried this with a fresh install:
 - download tor-browser-linux64-8.0.5_en-US.tar.xz
 - untar
 - start tor-browser
 Results in no audio. Which makes sense and confirms my findings above (as
 the tar archive contains no pulseaudio config files).

 So the question actually should be: why did it work at all before? Might
 be something CentOS / pulseaudio version specific?

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/29360#comment:3>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online


More information about the tbb-bugs mailing list