Firefox crashes if pipewire-screenaudio is active on NixOS with Mesa GPU drivers

[flippette]

I've tested both Discord and the gUM Test Page, both exhibits this behavior.

I'm using Firefox v127.0.1 on NixOS 24.11 unstable.

(Edit: More system info:

• OS: <as above>
• Firefox: <as above>
• WM: Hyprland v0.41.1
• libpipewire: v1.0.7

I'll attach more info on request.)

[IceDBorn]

I have this issue too. @jim3692 does not have this bug on Arch, I'm not sure if he's on the latest stable firefox though.

[IceDBorn]

We need more testing from NixOS users as well as different distro users. We're not sure if this issue is NixOS specific or not.

[IceDBorn]

We did some debugging, and it seems like that this is a bug that occurred with Firefox 127.0 specifically on nix.

[IceDBorn]

[Parent 170908, IPC I/O Parent] WARNING: process 171266 exited on signal 11: file /build/firefox-128.0/ipc/chromium/src/base/process_util_posix.cc:335, this error is thrown in the shell.

[jim3692]

It doesn't crash if I set the latency to 17 or more. Given that my display is 60Hz (meaning the frametime is 16.67ms), there must be a relation between those numbers.

pipewire-screenaudio/extension/scripts/index.js

Lines 44 to 47 in bd404d0

	// You can set more audio constraints here, bellow are some examples
	// latency: 0,
	// sampleRate: 48000,
	// sampleSize: 16,

EDIT: It works fine with latency 17 when I do not run firefox with nixGL. When I do use nixGL (which offers hardware codecs support for nix apps on non-nix distros, like Arch) it needs to be at least 18.

[IceDBorn]

@flippette Can you tinker with the latency and see if it fixes the crashes for you?

[flippette]

@flippette Can you tinker with the latency and see if it fixes the crashes for you?

My Nix install broke, so I'm back on Arch for the time being. I'll try doing that when I get my laptop.

[jim3692]

@flippette Could you tell us what is your GPU? I am starting to suspect the AMD drivers, as Firefox isn't crashing in VirtualBox.

[flippette]

@flippette Could you tell us what is your GPU? I am starting to suspect the AMD drivers, as Firefox isn't crashing in VirtualBox.

I have a Radeon RX 7800 XT.

[jim3692]

Thank you for your feedback. I tried to passthrough my RTX 2060 to a fresh NixOS VM. Firefox doesn't crash with nvidia either. I hate this bug.

[IceDBorn]

So, it's a NixOS + RADV or AMDVLK specific issue.

[flippette]

I am using RADV, not sure about AMDVLK.

(well, was)

[IceDBorn]

This setup does not crash the tab. I found this by changing the injector script to connect "Noise canceling source" instead of "pipewire-screenaudio", and the stream successfully started, having audio from my microphone. Doing this resulted in the node called "Noise canceling source", which has only one capture port, getting connected to Librewolf. So, the solution would be to replicate what "Noise canceling source" does. Obviously, "pipewire-screenaudio" present on this screenshot does not transmit any sound at all as it does not have any sources available. I transformed "pipewire-screenaudio" to a node with only one capture port, by changing "Audio/Source/Virtual" to "Audio/Source". The pipewire config for spawning Noise canceling source is available here.

[jim3692]

Hello all,

I got it crashing on my older PCs with NixOS Unstable:

• AMD RX550
• Intel HD 4600 (after enabling VA-API)

[IceDBorn]

We have to try using NVK instead of the proprietary drivers and see if it crashes for nvidia too @jim3692.

[jim3692]

We have to try using NVK instead of the proprietary drivers and see if it crashes for nvidia too @jim3692.

Firefox is also crashing with my RTX 2060 with the NVK driver, even though Firefox is not reporting hardware decoding in the about:support page

EDIT: Disclaimer I don't have any other GPUs to test on 😅

[IceDBorn]

@flippette it works for me now on the latest unstable, can you confirm?

[flippette]

I'm still on Arch for the time being, so I can't say. Sorry 😅

[IceDBorn]

@flippette you betrayed the nix cult...

[DADA30000]

there is also an active firefox issue specific to nix, using firefox-bin fixes discord tab crashing, but idk how to use pipewire-screenaudio with firefox-bin

[IceDBorn]

I haven't tested, but, wouldn't installing the firefox package as shown at the example work?

[DADA30000]

I haven't tested, but, wouldn't installing the firefox package as shown at the example work?

nope, doesn't work like that with firefox-bin unfortunately, just says "native connector is misconfigured"

[IceDBorn]

@DADA30000 Does it still crash for you? Because I'm pretty sure that it does not for me. I'll try re-testing tomorrow.

[DADA30000]

@DADA30000 Does it still crash for you? Because I'm pretty sure that it does not for me. I'll try re-testing tomorrow.

Just updated my flake, rebuilded my system, it still does, it crashes only when you're in a call with someone, and that someone says something, or when you go into voice settings in discord, and do a microphone check

[IceDBorn]

@DADA30000 I'll test it out too then.

[DADA30000]

@DADA30000 I'll test it out too then.

could you maybe do something so that it would work with bin version? Because I think that this issue with firefox on NixOS will take a lot of time to be fixed :D

[IceDBorn]

I'm not aware of the steps needed to get it working with the bin package. Maybe you could follow the install instructions for a normal FHS distro. Ex. add the manifest.json on ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts. https://github.com/IceDBorn/pipewire-screenaudio/blob/main/install.sh. You'll just have to change the path of pipewire-screenaudio to the nix store one.

[DADA30000]

I'm not aware of the steps needed to get it working with the bin package. Maybe you could follow the install instructions for a normal FHS distro. Ex. add the manifest.json on ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts. https://github.com/IceDBorn/pipewire-screenaudio/blob/main/install.sh. You'll just have to change the path of pipewire-screenaudio to the nix store one.

hmm, ok, I will try that, thanks!

[DADA30000]

I'm not aware of the steps needed to get it working with the bin package. Maybe you could follow the install instructions for a normal FHS distro. Ex. add the manifest.json on ~/.mozilla/native-messaging-hosts. https://github.com/IceDBorn/pipewire-screenaudio/blob/main/install.sh. You'll just have to change the path of pipewire-screenaudio to the nix store one.

that worked! Idk how I haven't thought of that, thanks again!

[IceDBorn]

So, issue's fixed using the bin I guess. We just have to add a home manager module.

[DADA30000]

So, issue's fixed using the bin I guess. We just have to add a home manager module.

oh wait, there is another problem, the only option that I can select in audio sources are virtual surround sink (it's not my main output) and audio from various tabs with audio playing

[DADA30000]

hmm, I will check non-bin version

[DADA30000]

Oh, sorry. it's the same on non-bin version, unrelated to this issue

[DADA30000]

@IceDBorn you know how to fix a problem where 'All Desktop Audio" is not listed?

[IceDBorn]

All desktop audio is currently broken. Will have to push a fix.

[DADA30000]

All desktop audio is currently broken. Will have to push a fix.

oh, ok :(