FIREFOX_DSP setting should be on a menu

[Dave Gilbert]

Binary package hint: firefox

Hi,
  It seems bizarre to me that FIREFOX_DSP must be manually edited into a config file or set with an env variable when everything else is configurable with the preferences menu or even about:config (and given it is common to want to change it then I don't think we should have to tell newbies to do something like that just to get sound to work).

Dave

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Marked as wishlist

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Can you please file this bug on https://bugzilla.mozilla.org and post the link here. I looked there is no upstream request for this issue and it needs to be upstream.

[Mozilla-treblig (mozilla-treblig)]

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20060601 Firefox/2.0.0.1 (Ubuntu-edgy)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20060601 Firefox/2.0.0.1 (Ubuntu-edgy)

Hi,
  (As per Ubuntu bug 53092 https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/53092 )
  It seems odd to me that FIREFOX_DSP is an environment variable while almost everything else is adjustable as a config/preference - even if it was only in about:config.
  It's a pretty common problem for users and it really doesn't feel right, and it seems nasty for people to have to get out a shell to fix something that should just work.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Expected Results:
A prefernce setting for the same options that FIREFOX_DSP drives.

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

Done - I've tacked it into the launchpad upstream thing; Mozilla bug 370813.

Dave

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Thank you.

[Jo-hermans (jo-hermans)]

That environment variable isn't part of the standard Firefox build - is it Ubuntu specific ?

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

Yes, this is ubuntu/debian specific. The debian/ubuntu startscripts starts firefox wrapped with sound server wrapper determined by this env variable. Closing as invalid.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

Please don't run bugs to upstream at need-info stage. I will take a look on mt-confirm and if the bug is upstream move to state Confirm, as well as tagging it mt-upstream - which means there should be proper upstream triage going on now.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

its currently a workaround. Don't think that anybody wants this setting in the menu. What is your use-case for making this more readily available?

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

It seems to be a work around that I've had to use in the past; I'm used to doing stuff in the shell and can therefore do this - it doesn't seem right to force normal users to break open a shell to play sound stabily (even if it is a workaround).

If the workaround is likely to be used by normal people who just want to listen to something and deal with other apps then I don't think those normal people should have to break around and futz with environment variables.
(Of course making it 'just work' would be even better).

Dave

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

upstream rejected for good reason. We close for the same one. BTW, sound works pretty well here out-of-the-box.

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

But since FIREFOX_DSP is something added by debian/ubuntu the upstream reason for closing is surely irrelevant.

My argument is purely that if Debian/ubuntu feel it necessary to have a way of changing the sound output behaviour to get
things to work for people then on a GUI app then you shouldn't need to mess with environment variables to do it.

BTW, sound output seems to work pretty well here out of the box, but I've had to fiddle with FIREFOX_DSP in the past
and it's always just been a bit frustrating that I have to.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Tue, Apr 03, 2007 at 05:37:13PM -0000, Dave Gilbert wrote:
> But since FIREFOX_DSP is something added by debian/ubuntu the upstream
> reason for closing is surely irrelevant.
>
> My argument is purely that if Debian/ubuntu feel it necessary to have a way of changing the sound output behaviour to get
> things to work for people then on a GUI app then you shouldn't need to mess with environment variables to do it.
>
> BTW, sound output seems to work pretty well here out of the box, but I've had to fiddle with FIREFOX_DSP in the past
> and it's always just been a bit frustrating that I have to.
>

Feel free to reopen. We should find a way to detect that
automagically in startup script (e.g. what sound server is
runnign). You want to work on that?

 - Alexander