LibFreeBoB ERR: Dropped packets on connection

[Johannes H. Jensen]

Binary package hint: libfreebob0

I'm using jack with FreeBoB to connect to my Edirol FA-66. This worked quite well in Gutsy but in Intrepid I now experience periods of choppy sound. The jack output reveals several of the following messages:

LibFreeBoB ERR: Dropped packets on connection 1
14:56:48.720 XRUN callback (1).

I'm attaching the full jack message log from qjackctl.
(I have added the usual @audio - rtprio 99 to /etc/security/limits.conf)

Version information:
 - Ubuntu 8.10
 - jackd 0.109.2-3ubuntu1
 - libfreebob0 1.0.11-0ubuntu1

Please let me know if you need any more information or testing done.

[Johannes H. Jensen (joh)]

I just tested replacing libfreebob0 with the one from latest SVN (r452). The XRUN errors seem to appear far less frequently with this version. I've only had one XRUN (LibFreeBoB ERR: Dropped packets on connection 1) so far in 5 minutes.

[Johannes H. Jensen (joh)]

After a while of testing freebob SVN, the XRUNs occur pretty much as frequently as with the ubuntu package.
I've downgraded to the hardy packages of libfreebob (1.0.7-1) and the problem does *not* seem to be present here. I'll report later if I experience any XRUNs at all with this version.

[Kayosiii (danni-coy)]

Can confirm libfreebob is dropping packets in Intrepid - hardy was just fine - but Intrepid was basically unusable (presonus firepod - TI ieee1394 chipset) I tried using the most recent kernel from hardy which helped a little but the problem was solved for me by replacing libfreebob with the latest libffado beta.... EIther way this bug is show stopper as far as serious firewire based audio production goes on Ubuntu Intrepid

[Santiago Benejam Torres (sbenejam-gmail)]

I got the same errors and symptoms with a Edirol FA-66, as Johannes H. Jensen
LibFreeBoB ERR: Dropped packets on connection 1
14:56:48.720 XRUN callback (1).
 on Ubuntu Intrepid, On Hardy it works wery well. I'm using ieee1394 pci card with a Via Chipset.

[Santiago Benejam Torres (sbenejam-gmail)]

I downgraded to libfreebob 1.0.7-1 package from hardy, the system works fine.

[NaKroTeK (alexandrepierre)]

Same problem for me...
I downgrade to and it's working fine.

[Carlo (gentuser)]

Downgrading to the libfreebob0_1.0.7-1 (hardy amd64) version i have the same problem on intrepid...
there is something else to do?

[paperdragon (gareth-l-armstrong)]

Could someone tell me how to downgrade freebob to 1.0.7, I can't seem to find the package on Synaptic, it's only got version 1.0.11

Thanks
G

[Andrew Hunter (rexbron)]

Libfreebob is no longer maintained upstream. It's development has been superseeded by libffado (added in Ubuntu 9.04). Please confirm if you are still having issues and if so, please reopen this report.

[Johannes H. Jensen (joh)]

I've tested libffado on jaunty, and there seems to be some issues with it and my firewire chipset (confirmed by ppalmers @ #ffado). So libfreebob is really still useful for some users. I still experience regular XRUNs with version 1.0.11-0ubuntu1 in jaunty - maybe at least downgrade the dependency requirement of libjack0 from >= 1.0.11 to >= 1.0.7? That would make it easier to downgrade to libfreebob0-1.0.7 for us users who experience these problems.

[dcgonzal (dcgonzal)]

Hi, how do you downgrade to libfreebob0-1.0.7? I'm running Jaunty with an Edirol FA-66 and having the same problem with the xruns.

[Kayosiii (danni-coy)]

For Jaunty it is easier to move forwards to ffado then back to to the older freebob. ffado does not exhibit the same problems.

[dcgonzal (dcgonzal)]

I have ffado installed. How do I choose it in Qjackctl? or what is the command to run it from the terminal?

[Kayosiii (danni-coy)]

ffado uses the firewire option rather than the freebob one in the driver drop down list.

[dcgonzal (dcgonzal)]

Got it, its working better now. Still get a rare xrun here and there but they are rare.

[NaKroTeK (alexandrepierre)]

Hi
Now I'm on Jaunty and same bug..... :(
But I can't downgrade with the same way on 8.04 so
How can I downgrade version without remove all software linked to it (talking about dependencies...)
set the 8.04 version for everything is a solution ..?? or set FFADO???

[dcgonzal (dcgonzal)]

I followed these steps:

http://subversion.ffado.org/wiki/InstallingFfadoFromSource

then I followed Kayosiii's advice and I choose firewire in qjackctl instead of libfreebob.

[Pieter Palmers (pieterpalmers)]

Please be aware of the fact that downgrading to freebob 1.0.7 is not really a solution. The difference between 1.0.11 and 1.0.7 is the fact that the packet drops are detected in 1.0.11, where they are undetected in 1.0.7.

In other words: you also have the same packet drops in 1.0.7 but they don't cause an xrun. For 1.0.11 it was decided that this is not acceptable for serious audio work as it means that some data has been lost somewhere (even though not audible at first sight). Therefore 1.0.11 (IMHO correctly) triggers an xrun when this happens.

Summary: anyone that has issues with 1.0.11 also has issues with 1.0.7, but hasn't noticed them yet. You should fix your setup.

Greets,

Pieter Palmers
FreeBoB / FFADO developer

[fobbez (ilanaelion)]

I was using my FA-66 with the opensuse 10.2 based JAD distribution, except I never figured out how to get the package manager to work once opensuse discontinued the 10.2 repositories. So I installed Ubuntu 10.9 (64 bit), apt-got the kernel-rt and rtirq-init packages, and followed the advice here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1328175

This reduced the xrun considerably, but not altogether.

[fobbez (ilanaelion)]

So today I switched to FFADO and haven't encountered xruns yet. I now run jack like this:

jackd -R -d firewire -dhw:0 -r96000

[bageh (alrefi)]

I have the same problem here. I've installed libffado in my ubuntu 8.04 to work with my Edirol FA-66. It seems to work at first, but when I open PureData, Jack crashes and I got this message: "could not connect to jack server as a client". Even if I kill Jack, I won't get it running with firewire until I reboot, but the problem continues (it works at first but then crashes and so on...).

I'm thinking in installing ffado from source, but do you know if I have to uninstall Jack and libffado from synaptic/apt-get?
In the ffado site there is a guide about compiling Beta 6 for Ubuntu 8.04. Is it necessary, or can be the 2.0.0 new ffado release?

Thanks