[Bug 192888] Re: firefox crashes on flash contents when using libflashsupport

Thu Apr 9 13:52:20 UTC 2009

You're being a bit pessimistic here. To every problem, there is a solution.
For example you could implement a intelligent anti-spam system or do what
every American does: sue there asses off! :-p

2009/4/9 teledyn <garym at teledyn.com>

> I rather suspect that 'spam' is exactly what they'd had in mind, and
> what we have witnessed is a whole new species of spam that may spell
> the end of nice open-posting bug-reporting systems for free software :(
>
> --
> Gary Lawrence Murphy <garym at teledyn.com> =============================
> Alice laughed: "There's no use trying, one can't believe impossible
> things."
> "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen.
>
> --
> firefox crashes on flash contents when using libflashsupport
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/192888
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “firefox” source package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in “flashplugin-nonfree” source package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “ia32-libs” source package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “libflashsupport” source package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “linux” source package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in “pulseaudio” source package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in firefox in Ubuntu Hardy: Invalid
> Status in flashplugin-nonfree in Ubuntu Hardy: Fix Released
> Status in ia32-libs in Ubuntu Hardy: Invalid
> Status in libflashsupport in Ubuntu Hardy: Fix Released
> Status in linux in Ubuntu Hardy: Invalid
> Status in pulseaudio in Ubuntu Hardy: Invalid
> Status in firefox in Ubuntu Intrepid: Invalid
> Status in flashplugin-nonfree in Ubuntu Intrepid: Fix Released
> Status in ia32-libs in Ubuntu Intrepid: Fix Released
> Status in libflashsupport in Ubuntu Intrepid: Won't Fix
> Status in linux in Ubuntu Intrepid: Invalid
> Status in pulseaudio in Ubuntu Intrepid: Invalid
> Status in “libflashsupport” source package in Baltix: Invalid
>
> Bug description:
> Testcase:
>
> use pulseaudio and libflashsupport together with flashplugin-nonfree in
> firefox.
>
> 1. navigate to youtube video
> 2. wait till sound plays
> 3. hit back button
> 4. hit forward
> 5. goto 2 if not yet crashed.
>
> the crash sometimes happens after 2 iterations ... and i can't remember
> that i ever made 10 :) ...
>
> =================
>
> Tested on two machines both with gutsy and hardy (on 32 bit x86): flash
> content very often crashes firefox (both of firefox-3.0 in hardy and older
> versions). I've just tried with other browsers, epiphany-browser crashes as
> well, and even konqueror from KDE (though it's not crashing at a whole,
> since it may run flash and other plugins as another user or something
> similar - I think at least - but it reports the crash of flash). I don't
> know exactly the package I should report this against, but as far as I can
> remember this issue presents since I started to play with pulseaudio: there
> is a wrapper lib to allow flash to play sound via PA right, so it CAN BE
> caused by this single issue instead of problem of the browser or the flash
> plugin itself?
>
> =================
> Workaround for early Hardy adopters:
>
> Manually uninstall the libflashsupport via 'apt-get remove libflashsupport'
> or synaptic.  This is necessary because libflashsupport would not
> automatically be removed by update-manager when it was changed from a
> dependent package to a recommended package during the Hardy development
> cycle.
>
> =================
> Update 13/8/08: Hopefully this summary can help clarify the situation and
> help get this bug fixed!
>
> Since the release of Flash 9, ALSA is the only audio output method
> supported by Flash (as opposed to earlier releases which had OSS and ESD
> support built-in). However, to aid with backwards-compatibility, Adobe have
> provided a simple API to support other audio (and secure transaction)
> schemes, which can be exposed by using the "libflashsupport" code. You can
> view the original implementation on Adobe's wiki page, which extends OSS and
> ESD output to Flash 9:
> http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Flash_Player:Additional_Interface_Support_for_Linux
>
> The version of libflashsupport used in Ubuntu (and most recent
> distributions that use PulseAudio) is different to the above, as it has been
> extended to support PulseAudio. You can see the relevant upstream wiki, with
> a description and link to the git repository:
> http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/FlashPlayer9Solution
>
> The problem that users are experiencing in this bug is that Flash becomes
> unstable when the libflashsupport API is used; both the original OSS/ESD
> implementation provided by Adobe and the version adapted for PulseAudio
> exhibit this instability. The source of the problem is within Flash itself
> and it is not due to a bug in the modified libflashsupport code. See this
> PulseAudio bug report: http://www.pulseaudio.org/ticket/267
>
> So what can we do? We can drop libflashsupport entirely and use a better
> method to enable PulseAudio support in Flash (and all ALSA applications, in
> fact). PulseAudio provides ALSA plugins that enable most ALSA applications
> to have PulseAudio support. Unfortunately, Ubuntu is one of the few
> distributions that did not configure PulseAudio completely and thus ALSA
> applications completely bypass PulseAudio, causing mixing conflicts. This
> issue is reported on bug #198453 and you can read the FAQ at the following
> link for a summary of the problem here:
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=866965
>
> If we remove libflashsupport and fix bug #198453, there's "good news" and
> "bad news" with regards to Flash:
>
> The bad news: Flash 9 still won't work (due to Flash 9's erroneous reliance
> on snd_async_add_pcm_handler() which causes problems with the PulseAudio
> ALSA plugin). See the PulseAudio developer's comment on Flash 9 here:
> https://tango.0pointer.de/pipermail/pulseaudio-discuss/2008-May/001796.html
>
> The good news: the snd_async_add_pcm_handler() issue is fixed in Flash 10
> (since beta 1). Essentially, Flash 10 is 100% PulseAudio compatible when
> using the proper configuration of bug #198453.
>
> In summary, the solution to this bug:
> 1. Upgrade to Flash 10 (at release candidate status as of 13/8)
> 2. Drop libflashsupport completely (it causes instability in Flash 9 and
> 10)
> 3. Fix bug #198453
>
> This bug is a trivial fix for Intrepid (and should have been fixed a long
> time ago, to give PulseAudio time for testing). It is also possible to fix
> in Hardy, as long as the prerequisites of bug #198453 can be fulfilled
> whilst keeping the SRU policy for an LTS release in mind. Either way,
> *something needs to be done*.
>

** Bug watch added: PulseAudio sound server #267
   http://pulseaudio.org/ticket/267

-- 
firefox crashes on flash contents when using libflashsupport
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/192888
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