System hangs after pulseaudio error: "snd_pcm_avail() returned a value that is exceptionally large: 125388 bytes (710 ms)"

[Matthew Gummess]

This is a bug on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa) for pulseaudio version: 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.2.

Description:

At random intervals, pulseaudio gives the following error message: "snd_pcm_avail() returned a value that is exceptionally large: 125388 bytes (710 ms)," after which the system slows down to a crawl. It has occurred in two instances: while playing a video game, and while working in two different workspaces with a zoom client and Spotify open (though not actively playing any audio). The system is recoverable with the SysRq key. I have not been able to duplicate it on command, but it is recurrent.

Possible duplicates:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1750947. The patch committed to fix this bug was reverted to fix a subsequent bug, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/1767784.

---
ProblemType: Bug
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.2
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-04-01 (59 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200423)
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Package: pulseaudio 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.2
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-33.37-generic 5.4.34
Tags: focal
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-33-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin lxd plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 11/14/2019
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: P3.70
dmi.board.name: B450M-HDV R4.0
dmi.board.vendor: ASRock
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP3.70:bd11/14/2019:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnASRock:rnB450M-HDVR4.0:rvr:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.family: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.sku: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Matthew Gummess (mgummess)]

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[Matthew Gummess (mgummess)]

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[Matthew Gummess (mgummess)]

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[Matthew Gummess (mgummess)]

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[Matthew Gummess (mgummess)]

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[Matthew Gummess (mgummess)]

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[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

Let us see if the HDMI sound card or analogue sound card introduced this problem, please edit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, add "options snd-hda-intel enable=0,1", reboot, this will disable the hdmi audio sound card (please check if the hdmi sound card is disabled successfully by pacmd list-cards). If the hdmi audio is disabled, please see if the problem still happens or not.

If the problem still happens, please change enable=0,1 to enable=1,0, this will disable analog sound card, and let us see if the problem happens or not.

[Matthew Gummess (mgummess)]

Done. Now checking with hdmi sound card disabled. Would this be a potential workaround if it succeeds? I do not have built-in speakers on my monitor.

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

Just for testing, let us see if the hdmi audio part or analog audio part introduced the issue, then we could make a deeper investigation on that part.

[Matthew Gummess (mgummess)]

Last day of testing with hdmi sound card disabled. No problems thus far. I have not had time to run a test with a video game, but I have duplicated the other conditions that caused a problem originally, to no effect. Tomorrow I will enable HDMI and disable the analog card to see if that leads to problems.

[Matthew Gummess (mgummess)]

Never mind, the problem occurs with the analogue sound card. What's next? I've attached another two sample error logs from syslog. System freeze after the error message reported above (you can find it after searching for error message).

[Jeronimo (jeronimo17)]

It also happens to me in Linux Mint, very rarely but always playing, sound is choppy, then the keyboard stops responding and when turning it off with a USB keyboard, the shutdown does not finish

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

Thanks Jeronimo, I saw you reported a upstream bug, let me add the link here:

https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-lib/issues/141
https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-lib/issues/68
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/issues/1078