Sound playing in LTSP clients using jaunty and gnome crash after a while using any player

[Ing. Pavel Milanes Costa]

I'm using the following

Software:
Description: Ubuntu 9.04
Release: 9.04
Upgraded 8.10 > 9.04 jaunty release partially updated (slow link sorry), And client chroot rebuid (/home/ remains the same)
Linux servercam 2.6.28-11-server #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 02:48:10 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
ltsp-server 5.1.65-0ubuntu2
ltsp-server-standalone 5.1.65-0ubuntu2
pulseaudio 1:0.9.14-0ubuntu20
gnome-applets 2.26.1-0ubuntu1

Hardware:
Intel S3000AHV board 32bit + Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz + 4Gb RAM 667 Mhz (NO SOUND CARD!!!)

The sound playing is ok just after login with any media player (vlc, totem, rythmbox, mplayer, etc) but after a while (5 to 20 minutes randomly) the sound stop responding and the volume applet show no device to attach to (before this ocurs it show the local sis chipset via pulseaudio)

It seems like is a combination of ltsp sound handling + pulse + gnome? problem.

I supposed that the sound work with any problem after the upgrade, but it's not working as needed

If you log off the client and logon as other user problem remains, if you reboot, problem solved.... after 20 minutes more.... it happens again.

[Ing. Pavel Milanes Costa (pavelmc)]

I have researched a while in launchpad and bugs https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ltsp/+bug/360355 and https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ltsp/+bug/274128 is like in some way related to this one.

I discovered thath using local apps (see ubuntuLTSP page form localapps in ubuntu wiki, using totem, vlc, mplayer [this need redirect the sound out to OSS]) the sound work great, try that workaround, it's working for me.

The other bugs mention 1 tips to investigate: is user related (so config in user directory must be relevant?)

[Victor Vargas (kamus)]

@Pavel, please do not confirm your own reports. Additionally, could you check (if is possible) in latest version included in Karmic if this issue is still happening? Thanks in advance.

[müzso (bit2)]

I've similiar issue as Pavel described. Running 9.10 on both LTSP server and in chroot. However I had no problem before the upgrade (when we were using Jaunty). :-o
I've noticed that the sound problem occurs mostly while watching videos in various FlashPlayer based video players on the web. It's not just YouTube, but any kind of video sharing sites. And once the sound is gone, it's gone globally (not just Firefox and the FlashPlayer). I've noticed on the client after the sound was gone that the pulseaudio process disappeared. However I've no clue on the reason ... there're no helpful entries in any of the logfiles in /var/log. :-(

I've found a few interesting entries from the time when the thinclient booted up and pulseaudio was started:
Jan 18 10:45:54 tc-004 pulseaudio[2557]: main.c: Running in system mode, but --disallow-exit not set!
Jan 18 10:45:54 tc-004 pulseaudio[2557]: main.c: Running in system mode, but --disallow-module-loading not set!
Jan 18 10:45:54 tc-004 pulseaudio[2557]: main.c: OK, so you are running PA in system mode. Please note that you most likely shouldn't be doing that.
Jan 18 10:45:54 tc-004 pulseaudio[2557]: main.c: If you do it nonetheless then it's your own fault if things don't work as expected.
Jan 18 10:45:54 tc-004 pulseaudio[2557]: main.c: Please read http://pulseaudio.org/wiki/WhatIsWrongWithSystemMode for an explanation why system mode is usually a bad idea.
Jan 18 10:45:55 tc-004 pulseaudio[2557]: module.c: module-volume-restore is deprecated: Please use module-stream-restore instead of module-volume-restore!
Jan 18 10:45:55 tc-004 pulseaudio[2557]: module-volume-restore.c: We will now load module-stream-restore. Please make sure to remove module-volume-restore from your configuration.
Jan 18 10:45:55 tc-004 pulseaudio[2557]: main.c: Failed to acquire org.pulseaudio.Server: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Connection ":1.7" is not allowed to own the service "org.pulseaudio.Server" due to security policies in the configuration file
Jan 18 10:45:59 tc-004 pulseaudio[2557]: ratelimit.c: 39 events suppressed
Jan 18 10:46:10 tc-004 pulseaudio[2557]: module.c: Failed to open module "module-x11-xsmp": file not found

And logging in to another client that still had sound revealed that pulseaudio is started with the following commandline:
/usr/bin/pulseaudio --system --exit-idle-time=-1 --disable-shm --no-cpu-limit --resample-method=trivial --high-priority --log-target=syslog -L module-udev-detect -L module-esound-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1 -L module-native-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1 -L module-volume-restore -L module-rescue-streams -L module-native-protocol-unix auth-anonymous=1 -n

I wonder whether removing the "--exit-idle-time" parameter or adding "--disallow-exit" would make any diffefence ...

[David Groos (djgroos)]

I'm running Jaunty as thin clients in my classroom and have the same issue. I've noticed since first boot that the boot sound is often corrupted. It has problems in different ways. Sometimes it will sound like popping or firecrackers in the background. Sometime the sound will cut off half way through the launch. Sometimes there will be no sound. I've never heard it play perfectly--the most common is the firecracker sound in the background.

I was just trying to play Rhythmbox and it worked fine for 5 seconds then froze. I force quite it. I can restart it, but there is no sound when a song plays. Also, when I go to Preferences/Sound and try and test one of the sound players, any one, they all give an error message such as this one:

audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink: Failed to connect: Connection refused

All error messages talk about 'Connection refused'.

I've had this issue for months but it hasn't been a critical functionality but it would be great.

[Ing. Pavel Milanes Costa (pavelmc)]

well my friend, i fix it upgradit to karmic...

2010/3/15 David Groos <email address hidden>

> I'm running Jaunty as thin clients in my classroom and have the same
> issue. I've noticed since first boot that the boot sound is often
> corrupted. It has problems in different ways. Sometimes it will sound
> like popping or firecrackers in the background. Sometime the sound will
> cut off half way through the launch. Sometimes there will be no sound.
> I've never heard it play perfectly--the most common is the firecracker
> sound in the background.
>
> I was just trying to play Rhythmbox and it worked fine for 5 seconds
> then froze. I force quite it. I can restart it, but there is no sound
> when a song plays. Also, when I go to Preferences/Sound and try and
> test one of the sound players, any one, they all give an error message
> such as this one:
>
> audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample !
> gconfaudiosink: Failed to connect: Connection refused
>
> All error messages talk about 'Connection refused'.
>
> I've had this issue for months but it hasn't been a critical
> functionality but it would be great.
>
> --
> Sound playing in LTSP clients using jaunty and gnome crash after a while
> using any player
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/495661
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

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