Voice Issues
Please note: Viewers play a minor part in voice functionality. The bulk of voice support is given by the external application called SLVoice, which is made by the SL voice provider, Vivox. Voice failures are almost always due to one of the following reasons:
- Your ISP is throttling or blocking the voice service;
- Failure of the Vivox service;
- Voice issues on the region you are on;
- Voice being throttled by bandwidth set incorrectly - please check it by following the instructions here;
- Voice hardware (mic, headset) not configured correctly in your operating system settings;
- Voice hardware not configured correctly in the viewer;
- Another application has your voice hardware in use (example, Skype);
- Your firewall is blocking slvoice. Add slvoice to your firewall's exclusion/allow list.
Your anti virus software has “mangled” the voice application; see steps on this page: here.
Unable to connect to voice server 'www.bhr.vivox.com' or 'www.osp.vivox.com'
For voice in Second Life, the IP address of the server 'www.bhr.vivox.com' is 74.201.103.238. For voice in OpenSim (except for some commercial grids) the IP address of the server 'www.osp.vivox.com' is 70.42.198.67.
When you see errors relating to not being able to connect to these, make sure you are resolving the same address. If it is not that address, it may be wrongly cached. A simple reboot may resolve this issue. If not, see DNS Fail - General steps for help fixing this.
Intermittent connect failure
Voice may not always connect to the voice servers. This is due to some coding issues that we inherited from the official SL viewer and that code's interaction with the latest voice files. The issue is documented on LL's Jira.
A workaround is to disable and then re-enable voice. But if you're presented with the voice connection failure message that tells you “Voice communications will not be available”, you may need to disable voice and then relog before voice will try to reconnect.
Steps:
- Go to Preferences → Sound & Media → Voice, and untick “Enable Voice.”
- Relog.
- Wait 10-20 seconds, or until the viewer has finished rezzing the scene.
- Re-enable voice.
Disable When Not in Use
Most voice connection issues happen when the viewer tries to connect to voice during the login process. The workaround is to disable voice before you log out, and then only enable it after logging in when you need it. You can toggle Voice from the Media Controls at the top of the viewer (not enabled by default for Vintage or Latency skins) by hovering over the speaker icon and then checking or unchecking the last checkbox, or by going to Preferences ⇒ Sound & Media ⇒ Voice and checking or unchecking the top option.
Ensure Headset Properly Connected
If you have issues hearing but not being heard, or vice versa, then make sure that your headset is properly connected to your computer. Unplug it, then plug it back in, making sure it is fully inserted.
And on a related note, if you plug your headset in while logged into SL, you will very likely have to relog to get it to be recognised.
Check Voice Settings in your Operating System
Due to the many different versions of each operating system (Windows, Linux distros, Mac OSx's), it is very difficult to give specifics for each one. Nonetheless, make sure that your operating system is correctly configured for voice: that voice is going to your headset (or speakers, as you prefer), and that your mic is enabled and configured.
If you can hear people but cannot be heard, or vice versa, it is most likely a problem in this area.
A bit more specifically, for Windows and Linux, check in Mixer that SLvoice is listed, and not muted. Check that input and output devices are correct. For Mac, look in the Sound Preference pane.
Voice doesn't work when Skype is on, or sounds don't work while using voice in Windows:
- In Windows Control Panel > Hardware & Sound > Manage Audio Devices
- Select the Recording tab, select the microphone, select Properties
- Select the Advanced tab - untick 'Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device' - click OK
- Select the Communications tab
- Select 'Do Nothing' - click OK
Some details provided below.
Check Voice Settings in the Viewer
- Go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Sounds. Find the Voice Chat slider and make sure it is not all to the left. Try increasing the volume.
- Make sure that Voice chat is enabled on that preferences tab.
- go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice. Click on Audio Device Settings. For Input and Output, use the dropdowns to select your voice devices (headset, microphone, whatever you use). It is best not to leave these at Default.
- Close Preferences and locate the Mic button on the button bar. Click the Lock checkbox then the actual button, and try speaking (hopefully, you went to Voice Echo Canyon so you can test).
Try Reinstalling Drivers
Try reinstalling the drivers for your sound card, if you have one. Sometimes, these drivers conflict with the sound component of graphics card drivers. Similarly, you may have success by reinstalling your graphics card driver.
If voice still does not work, then continue working through this page.
Voice Is Intermittent
If you find that voice cuts in and out, particularly right after a TP, and at the same time, you notice that things are not rezzing in for you very well (avatars, objects, etc), then the likely cause is that your router is being “overwhelmed” with texture transfers. So reboot your router/modem, and then your computer, and see if the problem is solved.
You can also try adjusting your bandwidth as explained here.
If that does not help, then proceed with the section below.
Voice Worked Fine but Suddenly Doesn't Work
Chances are good that the problem lies with the SL servers or the voice provider, Vivox. Still, there are things you can try:
- Open Preferences, and go to Sound & Media → Voice, and click Reset (circular arrow).
- Shut down all applications that use, or can use, voice - like Skype, etc. Then relog.
- What sometimes helps to get voice working is disabling voice in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice, hitting Ok, waiting a minute and then enabling voice and click Ok. When these methods fail (assuming voice usually works for you) it is usually the Vivox voice servers that are the problem.
- If this does not work at your current location, go to Voice Echo Canyon, as noted previously, or any region where voice is known to be enabled. Disable voice in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice. Relog, using the last location selection on your login screen. Wait a couple of minutes. Reenable voice. Wait another couple of minutes (in other words, give the connection time to be established). If voice comes on, then the problem may have been the region you were in before. Was voice disabled there? If not, a region restart might solve the problem.
- Go to Preferences → Network & Files -> Connection and reduce your bandwidth setting to 500 (if it is not already set there). Repeat the above step to toggle voice off and back on. See here for more information on setting your bandwidth properly, but bear in mind that lower levels than those calculated there may be necessary for troubleshooting purposes.
- Log out of the viewer, then check Task Manager (or equivalent) and see if SLVoice is still running. If so, kill the process, restart the viewer and see if voice connects.
- Try a relog, or even reboot your router/modem, and then your computer. 1)
- Sometimes device settings can reset, so check in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice→ Audio Device Settings, to be sure that the input and output are set correctly.
- HTTP fetching may be overloading your router; please try the suggestions given here; if they do not help, revert the changes made then return to this page and continue.
Never Been Able to Get Voice to Work
- Does your headset/microphone work outside of SL? ie when using Skype, Yahoo or MSN
- Does your headset/microphone work in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice→ Audio Device Settings?
- Is your voice chat volume turned up and not muted?
- Is the SLVoice.exe (simply SLVoice on Mac) that is in the Firestorm folder in the exceptions/allowed list for your firewall? If your firewall is turned off, turn it on and add the SLVoice.exe (or SLVoice) anyway.
If your Firewall has SLVoice listed twice, then remove both instances, and allow it again. For Win10, make sure that SLVoice has Private unchecked, and Public checked. If you had these set differently, change them, then close the window, log out of SL, reboot.
- Check the bandwidth you are actually getting and what you have set in Preferences → Network & Files → Connection. Please refer to this page for specifics.
- Go to top menu, Advanced → Debug Settings, and in the window that opens, type: Cmdlinedisablevoice - then ensure this is set to FALSE. (Use Crtl-Alt-D to enable the Advanced menu, if it isn't.)
By Operating System
Windows
1) Make sure to check all voice-related settings in Windows carefully.
- If you don't know how, Google how to operate the voice settings in your version of Windows.
- One tip: Check which application has control of your mic by hovering over the mic in your Task Bar:
![]()
It should show SLVoice. Click it to find out what apps are allowed to use the mic:![]()
2) Refer to the "Audio Issues" section of the Win 10 issues page for a possible problem/solution.
3) If voice works but sounds very distorted, see the "Voice Is Distorted" section of the Win 10 issues page.
4) If voice doesn't work when Skype is on, or sounds don't work while using voice:
- In Windows Control Panel > Hardware & Sound > Manage Audio Devices
- Select the Recording tab, select the microphone, select Properties
- Select the Advanced tab - untick 'Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device' - click OK
- Select the Communications tab
- Select 'Do Nothing' - click OK
Mac
All Mac Operating Systems
Basic Test for Mac Connection to the Voice Process
- On your Mac, open your Activity Monitor
- In Activity Monitor, enter “slvoice” in the search window so that you see only SLVoice in the list
- While watching it, reset voice in the viewer. If it doesn't vanish for several seconds, then reappear, then the SLVoice process is no longer connected to the viewer.
- To fix this, log off Firestorm, force quit SLVoice if it doesn't quit itself, then log in again.
Voice Issues Plus Other Connection Problems
If you are unable to connect to voice and you are also having problems with teleporting and/or loading your friends list, perhaps along with other things, then see the “Mac-specific” section of this page for instructions and more explanation.
If You Never Receive the Mac Mic Permissions Prompt
- This has happened to some users on recent versions of OSX, but it is known to be a particular problem with Monterey.
- If you never receive the Mac mic permissions prompt, SL voice may be working, but you will not be heard because your Mac is not allowing your mic to function.
- Proposed Workaround 1: 2)
- Have Firestorm downloaded and running as you normally would.
- Go to Firestorm Avatar → Preferences → Sound and Media → Voice → uncheck “Enable Voice”.
- Exit Firestorm.
- Go to Mac System Preferences > Firewall > Firewall Options. Click on the Add button, navigate to the version of Firestorm you just installed, and add it.
- Now under the Privacy tab in those same system preferences, scroll down to Accessibility.
- Click on the Add button, and again navigate to the version of Firestorm you just installed, and add it.
- Now log into Firestorm.
- Wait for things to render and settle.
- Go to Avatar menu → Preferences → and check the “Enable Voice” check box, then hit Refresh.
- At this point your Mac mic permissions box should pop up, and then your mic should work.
- If this doesn't work the first time, uncheck “Enable Voice,” log out of Firestorm, log back in, let it sit a minute, check the “Enable Voice” check box again, then hit Refresh.
- Proposed Workaround 2. This is for those comfortable with using the Mac Terminal. Use of the Terminal is at your own risk; please research commands before using them. 3)
- Enable voice in Firestorm, then quit the viewer.
- Open Terminal and run the following command:
tccutil reset Microphone - You should get a response that the microphone has successfully been reset
- Launch Firestorm
- You should see the “Allow Firestorm to use your microphone” prompt.
- Allow it.
- Note: This resets microphone access across all apps, so the next time you open an app that was previously using your microphone, you should see the permissions prompt there as well.
Mojave (10.14.x) (but possibly could happen on others)
1) Check Mac System Prefs → Security & Privacy → Privacy → Microphone.
- Your current Firestorm version should be listed there. If it isn't, try relogging. If that doesn't help, try deleting just the Firestorm application from your Applications folder, then reinstalling it (there is no need to do anything with cache or settings folders).
- If there are multiple versions of Firestorm in System Prefs → Security & Privacy → Privacy → Microphone, find those versions on your computer and delete them. They should disappear from the list. Then relaunch your current Firestorm, and if that doesn't work, reinstall it.
2) If you seem to have voice working (voice dots and green speech indicators show) but can't speak/hear, and your device doesn't show in Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice→ Audio Device Settings, you may be able to use your Mac Audio MIDI Setup to fix this.
- Go to your Mac Utilities folder and open Audio MIDI Setup.
- Look for your headset/mic in the list.
- If your device shows there, proceed:
- Click the + sign and choose “Create Multi-Output Device.”
- In the new Multi-Output Device that appears, select your headset/mic.
- If you have Firestorm open, relog so it can find the new Device.
- Go to Preferences→ Sound & Media -> Voice→ Audio Device Settings, and select your new “Multi-Output Device.”
- This fix has not been extensively tested. Feedback and suggestions are welcome.
- Thanks to user Zuzu Zong for the suggestion.
See also this JIRA issue for other possible suggestions.
Linux
In the Firestorm install directory, there's a text file (originally from LL) with tips on getting voice to work in Linux. If you haven't read that, then you can try to see if it helps.
- Make sure you have ALSA oe PulseAudio installed and functioning. If you look at Help → About Firestorm while logged in, you should see a line that resembles this:
Audio Driver Version: OpenAL, ALSOFT / OpenAL Community / OpenAL Soft: PulseAudio Software / FMOD Studio
If that says “none” then you have no audio driver available to Firestorm and need to install one.
- Edit the firestorm shell script and remove the #. That will force LL to use FMOD Studio rather than ALSA. Some say this is how to get voice working.
#export LL_BAD_OPENAL_DRIVER=x
- Some swear that the problem is PulseAudio, so you can try to remove that from your system. Be warned, however, that this could cause more problems than it solves. Make sure you remove only Pulse and not half the OS. If you are in any way unsure, do NOT remove any packages.
- Be sure to have the correct devices select in Firestorm for voice:
Preferences → Sound & Media → Voice → Audio Device Settings (button)
Input and output may not work if left at default; they may need to go to a specific device like “ALSA Capture on [device name]”. - Run ldd across all the vivox libraries and ensure no missing libraries are present (set LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to your local firestorm lib dir before running this command so you don't get erroneous results). any missing libs need to have their 32 bit (i386) version installed.
Below are results for selected Linux distros, based on input from Firestorm users. This will be updated as more information becomes available.
Ubuntu 22.04 and variants
The native Linux voice files from Vivox are obsolete and depend on libidn11:i386, which is no longer available. There are three alternatives/workarounds:
- Use the included Windows voice system via WINE:
- In the viewer:
- Press Ctrl-Alt-Shift-S to access Debug settings
- In the filter field, enter FSLinuxEnableWin64
- Set that to TRUE
- Log out
- In Linux:
- Install WINE if necessary:
sudo apt install wine
- Create a symbolic link and use the native voice files:
- If needed, install the libidn12:i386 package:
sudo apt install libidn12:i386
- Create a link called libidn.so.11, point it to /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libidn.so.12
- Place the link in the same /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ directory, or in the viewer's lib32 directory
- Note that if you place it in the viewer's lib32 directory, you will have to do recreate the symlink every time you extract a viewer.
- Modify and use the native voice files:
- If needed, install the libidn12:i386 package:
sudo apt install libidn12:i386
- If needed, install the patchelf package:
sudo apt install patchelf
- In a terminal, navigate to the Firestorm program directory
- Enter the following commands:
patchelf --replace-needed libidn.so.11 libidn.so.12 bin/SLVoice patchelf --replace-needed libidn.so.11 libidn.so.12 lib32/libortp.so patchelf --replace-needed libidn.so.11 libidn.so.12 lib32/libvivoxplatform.so patchelf --replace-needed libidn.so.11 libidn.so.12 lib32/libvivoxsdk.so
- Note that you have to do this every time you extract a viewer.
Launch the viewer, log in, enable voice and test.
Ubuntu 20.04 and variants
These packages provides support for voice services. WINE is not required unless you plan on using the Windows voice package, included with Firestorm.
| gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio:i386 | libidn11:i386 | wine |
sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio:i386 libidn11:i386 wine
Ubuntu 18.04 and variants
These packages provides support for voice services. WINE is not required unless you plan on using the Windows voice package, included with Firestorm.
| gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio:i386 | libidn11:i386 | wine |
sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio:i386 libidn11:i386 wine
Fedora
The following has been suggested by user moondeveloper:
#from root or with sudo: dnf install libidn libidn.i686 libzip.i686 libzip alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i686 cd /usr/lib ln -s libidn.so.12 libidn.so.11