Audio problem from Flash videos on Ubuntu solved

by Jeremy Jones

I've been having a problem getting audio while playing Flash videos on my Ubuntu Dapper powered laptop. Many times, if I want to ask a ninja or find out how emo Hope is, I see moving video, but I don't hear anything. The (pain in the rear) workaround has been to kill Firefox, ``killall esd`` from a terminal window, restart Firefox, and try to watch the video again. While this has worked, it's been a huge pain. I just decided to google for "flash esd ubuntu" and stumbled across a Ubuntu launchpad page. Something that I just tried which seems to have fixed my problem is the following suggestion from Daniel Carrera:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libesd.so.0 /usr/lib/libesd.so.1
sudo mkdir -p /tmp/.esd/
sudo touch /tmp/.esd/socket

And I am happily asking a ninja and seeing how emo Hope is. Now if Hope would just release a new podcast.....

19 Comments

monoman
2006-07-19 08:10:20 		Well, Ask A Ninja jsut switched to Quicktime, so I couldn't test the fix using it... :(
aleska
2006-07-19 12:46:06 		new ubuntu 6.06 user here.
I was psyched to hear about this fix as I was having same problems.
I just tried the code:
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libesd.so.0 /usr/lib/libesd.so.1
sudo mkdir -p /tmp/.esd/
sudo touch /tmp/.esd/socket
...yet, still having same problems. No sound on YouTube or other flash sites. Also, I've noticed weird things like trying to view 9.yahoo.com It says I don't have latest player. Have you noticed similar probs?
Jeremy Jones
2006-07-19 18:28:43 		Yeah. I'm irritated about 9.yahoo.com and....can't remember some other site now...that is using Flash 8. The latest Flash player that is available for Linux is Flash 7. So, I've definitely noticed this problem.


I have noticed that at some point, probably after rebooting, my /tmp/.esd/socket disappeared, so I had to recreate it. If you're still having problems after creating /tmp/.esd/socket and linking to the shared libraries and a fresh reboot, you may want to try some of the other suggestions on the launchpad page I referenced.

Skern
2006-07-23 07:01:48 		seems to have worked for me, thanks!!!
Somebody
2006-08-06 08:07:44 		Hello


I had sound problems on Ubuntu after installing Amarok...


Nothing worked on audioside exept Mplayer for some reason and totem.
VLC video out of sound, GsNES9x out of sound, flah on websites out of sounds,


Tried even below, but didn't work.


Problem in Amarok was that it could not use Xine engine.


Anyway I stopped esd process and then setted up xine on Amarok and now all programs have sound even after reboot (and yes esd is now also running)...


So I quess esd don't like alsa stuff etc. =)

Allan
2006-08-17 15:58:19 		Yes, you solved my intermittent audio problem.
Tiantian
2006-08-18 08:13:37 		there is another way to solve this problem proposed at
http://www.macewan.org/2006/06/01/howto-firefox-flash-video-sound-on-ubuntu-linux-dapper/
which is basicaly


sudo aptitude install alsa-oss


sudo gedit /etc/firefox/firefoxrc
Change the file where it corresponds so that it reads
FIREFOX_DSP="aoss"

Tiantian
2006-08-18 08:22:00 		Actually you can just download alsa-oss from the Synapricpackage manager
or just using apt-get instead of aptitude.
Ron
2006-08-18 18:07:56 		Thanks a whole lot - I don't know how many times this page has saved me, like just now. Even after running Automatix, every once in a while I manage to muck things up by experimenting with various packages. Your instructions have saved me every time. Thanks again.
Jeremy Jones
2006-08-18 18:39:09 		Tiantian,


I may tinker with alsa one day. Maybe when I get the second hard drive that I've been contemplating. I fear what alsa may muck up.

Jeremy Jones
2006-08-18 18:39:44 		Ron,


Glad to hear it! Happy sounding to you!


2006-08-23 11:31:15 		THANK YOU!

2006-09-05 02:02:34 		It works also for me using Fedora Core 5.


Thanks a lot.

pcrudy
2007-02-15 06:22:00 		late to the party but i just updated ubuntu server edition (6.10?) and poof! my sound left the building. i tried the alsa-oss fix to no avail but killing the esd (killall esd) first and then running the commands you provided (don't have a clue what they mean or do!) plus a reboot and so far, all is back to normal.

2007-03-27 08:26:43 		I am having problems with my flash player, the video from a site would work, by there is no sound.. if anyone knows the solution please help, thank you
FrogWeasel
2007-06-25 19:42:40 		Thank you Jeremy Jones.
Thank you Daniel Carrera.
I've been trying to find a fix for this for months and now I have sound with my flash video.
(FC5/Gnome)
Robert MacEwan
2007-08-26 12:53:12 		@Tiantian,


Wanted to thank you for suggesting folks take a look at what worked for me.

dovilo
2008-03-12 00:51:10 		where do you paste that code
Kristian
2008-06-12 08:19:35 		It didn't work for me. Now I get this error in my terminal when I try to play a flash movie:


ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:874:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave


How can I remove the symbollic link?


Kristian

 
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