Comment # 15 on bug 1190882 from Joel Miller

Your queries prompted me to delve deeper into this issue, enabling me to
determine what I believe is the cause of the missing audio.

As you noted in Comment 7, pulseaudio is now required for web browsers.  Based
on my experience, this had no impact on openSuSE prior to Leap 15.3 (see the
response in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1209469).  Because I
frequently engage in administrative tasks, I have found it more productive to
log in as root rather than as a user, notwithstanding the security concerns. 
In its standard configuration, pulseaudio runs only in user sessions, not in
���������system��������� mode (i.e., login as root).  (See
https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/SystemWide/
and disfavor of system-wide implementation of pulseaudio:
https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/WhatIsWrongWithSystemWide/).
While web browser sound does not work in a root session on a 15.3 platform
because pulseaudio is not running, it functions properly in a user session.

I ran the alsa-info script in a user session on machine #9 (running Leap 15.3)
��������� the report states that pulseaudio is running (see the alsa-info.sh report
10-02-21 attachment in comment 14 above).  Further, the user session report���������s
ALSA/HDA dmesg section is blank ��������� i.e., no issues.  And I confirmed that
Firefox sound works in 15.3 user sessions on four different machines (two
Asus-motherboard desktops, an ACER all-in-one, and a 2019 Dell laptop).

I looked briefly at using apulse in lieu of pulseaudio, but the comment
regarding Firefox in a GitHub description gives me pause (see
https://github.com/i-rinat/apulse; scroll down to ���������Firefox 58, etc.��������� under
���������Known Issues���������).  Pipewire may also fail to deliver sound from Firefox.  Since
pulseaudio works well in a user session, I see no reason to seek an alternative
at this time.

Please let me have your comments.