I tried pulseaudio once and it added a constant 7-8% CPU load to an idle system. That's just pure ridiculous. How did such a bad design end up being a standard in Linux?! Anyway, since then I've turned off pulseaudio, and only use it for that one annoying site that refuses to work without it and that requires Chromium. I wish I could get rid of it altogether but alas, no such luck with Chromium. I wish I could get by without Chromium too, but limiting it to just a single site that I use only once a week is a good enough compromise for now. I only have so much time and energy to fight this bogonity, I have to pick my battles.

Refracta does not vary from Devuan very much. Most things are installed without recommends and without metapackages, to make it easier to remove anything you don't want. The only reason apulse is installed is for tor-browser, and sometimes ff-esr will need apulse if it runs after tor-browser.

I'm using Firefox ESR from the repository on Excalibur with only ALSA installed, no PulseAudio or PipeWire. I didn't need to edit any configuration files. Is this a new feature?

No, I don't think so. Sound has always worked for me when using the Firefox ESR that comes from Debian. I've never had to do anything to get sound working. The only exception to that was when I was using the SeaMonkey web browser, which is not available in Debian/Devuan. For SeaMonkey, I was able to get sound working using apulse.

I suspect that the people having problems with sound not working are not using the Firefox ESR that is packaged by Debian. They are probably installing Firefox from a different source, and probably using a version other than Firefox ESR.

I should add that I have been using Refracta, and I am not sure how much that varies from a default Devuan installation. Although pulseaudio is not installed, some related packages are installed:

libpulse-mainloop-glib0
libpulse0

$ aptitude why libpulse-mainloop-glib0
i   blueman Depends libpulse-mainloop-glib0

$ aptitude why libpulse0
i   chromium Depends libpulse0 (>= 0.99.1)

apulse is also installed. However, it does not appear that Firefox is using apulse on this system. It may have been installed for some other reason.

https://appimage.github.io/Firefox/

Regards.

can not help to think that the laptop sounded better on Debian Wheezy with Alsa Only than now on Beowulf/Chimaera,#
but maybe i am just delusional.

Happy Computing!

hello ,

ia m on fresh install of Devuan jessie on this laptop and it wont update since it is old laptop with graphics not supported by newer systems i suppose,

so my question is how can i best install newer firefox-esr (without need of huge dependencies) for devuan jessie?

it is because i want to turn into alsa-only laptop that i am not wanting to use the official firefox-esr ftp repository;
is is understanding that all the firefox-esr from devuan is alsa-only enabled,

thanks

Hi kapqa, I'm using the firefox-latest release 121 and I use alsa-utils but with pipewire & wireplumber for sound.

as for downloading, usually I wait until firefox alerts me to an upgrade, (that's why the script uses /home/glenn/Downloads.)
if you care to look, there are many other versions there too.

here is my install proceedure,

#!/bin/bash

# sh "/home/glenn/build/firefox-from-git.sh"
echo "installing firefox-121.0.tar.bz2"
# https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/121.0/
#wget https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/xy.z/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-xy.z.tar.bz2

cd /home/glenn/Downloads
wget https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/121.0/linux-x86_64/en-GB/firefox-121.0.tar.bz2

mv /home/glenn/Downloads/firefox-121.0.tar.bz2 /home/glenn/local/archive/source/

# archived :  /home/glenn/local/archive/source/firefox-121.0.tar.bz2

cd /opt

tar xfj /home/glenn/local/archive/source/firefox-121.0.tar.bz2

# remove the old firefox links

mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefoxold

# or after backup of bookmarks and passwordz

# apt remove firefox-esr

# create new link

ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

# copy statusBar script.

#rsync -avh /home/glenn/build/userChrome.css /opt/firefox/browser/chrome/
chmod -R 755 /opt/firefox

btw, I have firefox-esr installed as well, I just don't use it for much, internet-radio...

I hope this helps you.

ia m on fresh install of Devuan jessie on this laptop and it wont update since it is old laptop with graphics not supported by newer systems i suppose,

so my question is how can i best install newer firefox-esr (without need of huge dependencies) for devuan jessie?

it is because i want to turn into alsa-only laptop that i am not wanting to use the official firefox-esr ftp repository;
is is understanding that all the firefox-esr from devuan is alsa-only enabled,

thanks

Downloading Librewolf as we speak....

( https://librewolf.net/installation/debian/ )

For sound with alsa you probably need the "AppImage" - not the version form the debian repository.
Not sure why this is, but it was the case some months ago and did not re-check since then.

Why is it not in the Debian repository?

No idea ...

A (partial) answer to that can be obtained by searching https://wnpp.debian.net - where WNPP is "Work-Needing and Prospective Packages" - more information at https://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp

Searching reveals LibreWolf is one of 3250 requested packages; initially there wasn't a deb package for it, and since the November 2022 comment that there now is one, a maintainer has yet to step forward and adopt it.

I don't know if there is a specific place/process for asking maintainers if any of them want to do so, or if it's left for maintainers to monitor the lists for packages that interest them.

The search page claims 329 installs - not sure where that number comes from; if it's PopCon/similar then that suggests significantly higher actual numbers, given the target audience of LibreWolf.

( https://librewolf.net/installation/debian/ )

Why in 99% of Linux distros

((( FIREFOX ))) is included as "FREE AND OPEN SOURCE"
when its bloated, insecure and TRACKS people

Yet
LibreWolf isnt

---

Why is Default ((( CHROME))) available in 99% of linux Distros
yet ungoogled chomium isnt available

Because they are

Weapon
Corporation
((( THEM)))
Linux system sanctioned to be ((( PUSHED )))

All this moral talk of privacy, security and """ FREE DOM"""
gets over written by ((( CORPORATION ))) and ((( TRACKING ))) interests

---------

This is why I recommend

Portable tar gz programs
Debs
and
Appimages

----

I use appimage for

LibreOffice
LibreWolf
Delta Chat
Ghost Writer
OBS
Shotcut
Rssguard

Then I am in charge of when a program updates or doesnt update
not the OS, not the Distro, not the distro team

LibreWolf is not in the Debian repositories and as a direct consequence, you will not find it in the Devuan repositories.

Now ...
Why is it not in the Debian repository?

No idea ...
Maybe for the same reason a number of other distributions don't don't have it in theirs.

But I don't know what that reason is.

Best,

A.