Web radio silent for 3 seconds each 40 seconds

Seems to use flash. Can you give the output of:

uname -a; lsb_release -a; dpkg -l | grep flash; dpkg -l | grep gnash; dpkg -l | grep swf

Thanks

~$ uname -a; lsb_release -a; dpkg -l | grep flash; dpkg -l | grep gnash; dpkg -l | grep swf
Linux <computer name> 2.6.35-28-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 18 19:00:26 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 10.10
Release: 10.10
Codename: maverick
ii flashplugin-installer 10.3.181.26ubuntu0.10.10.1 Adobe Flash Player plugin installer
ii flashplugin-nonfree 10.3.181.26ubuntu0.10.10.1 Adobe Flash Player plugin installer (transitional package)
rc gnash-common 0.8.7-0ubuntu1 free SWF movie player - common files/libraries
rc mozilla-plugin-gnash 0.8.7-0ubuntu1 free SWF movie player - Plugin for Mozilla and derivatives

(This appears to be current, and the same as one other computer that does work for this program. Synaptic doesn't show gnash as being installed, and I don't believe it is.)

sudo dpkg -P gnash-common mozilla-plugin-gnash; sudo apt-get --purge remove flashplugin-installer flashplugin-nonfree; sudo apt-get clean; sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get -y upgrade; sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

Should do it

Sorry, I'm out of time. I'll have to try this in about two weeks. I note that my other computer that's set up the same way with Flash has no such problem.

I vaguely remember that I installed gnash at some time in the past to solve this or a similar problem.

Sorry, it took me a while to get to this.

No luck. It's still periodic, but now it stops for 4 to 10 seconds about every 2 minutes.

Is your system fully updated in the Update Manager? (I am not asking you to update to Ubuntu 11.04, just to install any updates that are available for your Ubuntu 10.10 system.)

Does this happen when you run Firefox or Chromium after logging on to your Ubuntu system with a different user account? (Please note that I am talking about another user account on your Ubuntu system, not user accounts on the website that you are using to play the audio. If you only have one user account on your Ubuntu system, you can a second account to test this.) The motivation behind this question is not the idea that you could just always use a different user account when accessing that site--this would be a very cumbersome workaround--but rather that knowing whether or not it happens in another user account would provide important information about possible causes of the problem.

Yes. My systems are always fully updated. And yes, the problem occurs with all accounts, even an unused, default account.

Unfortunately, I don't see any evidence of any system or user processes that could account for it either. The data still keep coming on the Internet, there's no obvious change in CPU use, etc.

Please open a Terminal window, run this command (copy it from here to the clipboard and paste it into the Terminal, then press enter), then select all the text in the Terminal (Edit > Select All), copy it to the clipboard (Edit > Copy), and paste it here.

dpkg -l | egrep 'flash|gnash|swf|lightspark'

That command is similar to what actionparsnip gave you initially, but it also checks to see if one more Flash implementation is installed (Lightspark). In addition, this checks to make sure that the reinstallation operation you performed pursuant to actionparsnip's instructions in post #3 appears to really have worked correctly.

Also, in Firefox, please go to Tools > Add-ons, click the Plugins tab, and see if more than one entry is listed containing the word Shockwave and/or the word Flash. If there is more than one, please describe what they all say--or take a screenshot, post it on the web (you could use a site like http://postimage.org), and paste the URL here. If there is just one, please verify that its version number is identical to the version number presented in the output of the dpkg command above.

 dpkg -l | egrep 'flash|gnash|swf|lightspark'
ii flashplugin-installer 10.3.181.34ubuntu0.10.10.1 Adobe Flash Player plugin installer
ii flashplugin-nonfree 10.3.181.34ubuntu0.10.10.1 Adobe Flash Player plugin installer (transitional package)

http://postimage.org/image/42rf6dz8/
I have no idea if that's considered the same version.

That's the same version. It doesn't look like the screenshot shows all the plugins, but I assume you've checked yourself to ensure that there is not more than one plugin listed in add-ons that says Flash or Shockwave.

You might try the beta of Adobe Flash 11 (http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplatformruntimes/flashplayer11/). Before installing it, you should make sure to completely remove the Flash plugin you have ("sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-installer flashplugin-nonfree"). If you try the Flash 11 beta and decide to go bacck to Flash 10.3, you should make sure to completely remove the beta (there should be instructions on that site) before reinstalling Flash 10.3.

"It doesn't look like the screenshot shows all the plugins,"

It does. The rest of the window was blank. I don't want to run a beta version by Adobe, but thanks for suggesting it.

I have a workaround, which is just not to use that computer. If I wanted to pursue this, I would try gnash or something else. But frankly, I'm coming to view bug reports as futile.

If you create a new user, is it the same?

@actionoparsnip
We have already tried that. From post #7: "yes, the problem occurs with all accounts, even an unused, default account."

@VanillaMozilla
This is not a bug report, nor did I suggest you report a bug about this. (You could, but it would be difficult to know that the bug is in the Flash player rather than the Flash media content on that website; it seems likely that it is in the latter, anyway.) What is the relevance of how worthwhile it is to file bugs?

It's specific to Ubuntu on this computer, so it's either something about the system or the Flash player. I don't see how it can be the Web site. Can you reproduce it?

I have gone to http://kdhx.fm/archives/archive_gen.php?show=musicfromthehills and clicked the Play button immediately above the text "Music From the Hills on July 31st". I have been listening for several minutes, and I have not experienced this problem. There are pauses in the playback, but they appear to be intention, occurring after the end of one speaker or song. I am assuming this is *not* what you're talking about, and that when you use the site, you actually get untimely interruptions while music is playing.

I performed the above test on a Lubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal system running Chromium 12.0.742.112 (90304) Ubuntu 11.04 [provided by chromium-browser 12.0.742.112~r90304-0ubuntu0.11.04.1] and Adobe Shockwave Flash 10.3 r181 [provided by flashplugin-installer 10.3.181.34ubuntu0.11.04.1].

The operating system that is Ubuntu, and various software you have installed including the Flash player, are no more specific to your machine than the website itself. Furthermore, when you use that site, Ubuntu is running on your computer, your web browser is running on your computer, the website is displaying on your computer, the Flash player plugin for your web browser is running on your computer, and the Flash content application Flowplayer (which that website uses, see http://flowplayer.org/) is running on your computer. Why would it be impossible for the problem to be related to some of those, but impossible for it to be related to others? Any of those things could interact with specifics of your computer's hardware, software, or configuration differently from the way in which it interacts with a different computer's hardware, software, or configuration.

I don't have extensive familiarity with flowplayer, but it is free open source software, so perhaps its developers value user freedom and choice, and perhaps they have further made the effort to ensure that it works with one or more free open source Flash player implementation. Therefore, your idea about trying one seems sound; if gnash doesn't work, you could try lightspark; if that doesn't work, you could try swfdec. The reason I did not recommend this initially is that a great deal of Flash content on the web does not work well with these players, at the present time, so simply removing Adobe Flash and installing one of them might break plenty of Flash content for you. While having multiple Flash players installed and enabled will cause problems, however, you should be able to have more than one installed and make sure to manually disable all but one, at any given time, in your web browser (you might have to restart your web browser in order to effectively switch from one to the other).

If you want to continue troubleshooting this, we can do so. If you want to do that, the first step would be to boot the computer (the same physical machine) from an Ubuntu live CD/DVD/USB of the same version of Ubuntu that you are running, connect to the Internet the same way that you currently do, and see if the problem occurs there. If it does, then the problem is not due to specifics of your computer's *configuration* -- if it doesn't, then the problem is probably due to those specifics.

Thanks, but it's not really worth it. First I have to figure out how to point to the right repository and install Flash from a CD. Then, even if it did make a difference, I still would have to diagnose and fix the current installation.

Right now I have my hands full with other stuff anyway. When I do find a problem and diagnose it, I like to file a bug report if applicable, even if I have already applied a workaround. But in this case it just isn't worth it.

I agree--given that you are probably busy with more important matters (computer-related or not), that you think it would take a significant time to do the testing, the relative obscurity of the problem, and the uncertainty as to where the problem really lies, it doesn't seem worthwhile to pursue this further just for the purpose of (possibly) being able to file a bug.

On the other hand, if you ever want to work on this in the future and want help, please feel free to reopen this question.

Thanks, I really appreciate your help. I did boot from a CD, so I went that far, but some things are better not to fix.

Ah, drat, I accidentally reopened the question. Closing again.