applications using sound freeze when playing audio

[Cheesun Choong]

My motherboard is a gigabyte z77mx-d3h, apparently using intel pantherpoint audio. I don't have all the details with me at the moment and can add more information to this report when I get home.

Symptoms:

ubuntu 12.04 - out of the box:
* clicking the volume control app from the ubuntu system settings causes the system settings window to freeze. The sound control panel never appears and there isn't any way to list or choose output devices.
* playing any audio (such as in rhythmbox, movie player, etc) causes that application to freeze.

I've had a look at not seen any particular errors in the logs of these applications. if the experts here could point me to the right places to find the information I would be happy to post it.

Workaround:

I worked around the problem by uninstalling pulseaudio and falling back to alsa-mixer. The Ubuntu hda intel sound howto was no help.

This allows me to use the motherboard audio (i use spdif output), as well as USB audio without issues in most applications. For example I can play music in rhythmbox, watch movies, and use youtube - all with sound.

Despite the workaound, Wine still displays the original symptoms. For example if alsa is set as sound driver, the audio settings tab in wine settings freezes.

Thanks All!
Cheesun

[Cheesun Choong (thecheesun)]

Surprised no one else is having this issue... Here's more information:

I can work around the Wine freeze by disabling sound (disabling mmdevapi).

The output from lsmod is:

Module Size Used by
vesafb 13516 1
pci_stub 12550 1
vboxpci 22911 0
vboxnetadp 13328 0
vboxnetflt 27240 0
vboxdrv 252188 3 vboxpci,vboxnetadp,vboxnetflt
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 31775 1
snd_hda_codec_via 46198 1
rfcomm 38139 0
bnep 17830 2
bluetooth 158479 10 rfcomm,bnep
parport_pc 32114 0
ppdev 12849 0
binfmt_misc 17292 1
snd_usb_audio 101566 1
snd_usbmidi_lib 24603 1 snd_usb_audio
usbhid 41937 0
hid 77428 1 usbhid
mxm_wmi 12893 0
fglrx 2909978 134
snd_seq_midi 13132 0
snd_rawmidi 25424 2 snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_seq_midi
snd_hda_intel 32765 0
snd_hda_codec 109562 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_via,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 13276 2 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec
snd_seq_midi_event 14475 1 snd_seq_midi
psmouse 86520 0
serio_raw 13027 0
snd_pcm 80916 4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_seq 51592 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 28931 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 14172 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
wmi 18744 1 mxm_wmi
video 19068 0
snd 62218 14 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_via,snd_usb_audio,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
mac_hid 13077 0
soundcore 14635 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 14108 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
mei 36570 0
lp 17455 0
parport 40930 3 parport_pc,ppdev,lp
atl1c 36718 0

The output from lspci is:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Ivy Bridge PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Panther Point High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Panther Point PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev c4)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Panther Point PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Panther Point LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Panther Point 6 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Panther Point SMBus Controller (rev 04)...

[Cheesun Choong (thecheesun)]

Notice that in the above lsmod, a usb audio device is showing up too - that's because i'm using that as a replacement. However, it would be much better to get my onboard sound fixed.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) reached end-of-life on April 28, 2017.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for pulseaudio (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]