[ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4] Playback problem

[reidi]

For any application using sound:

Every 10 seconds there is a "hiccup" or stutter. This is clearly seen in the System Monitor as a brief bump in the CPU graph from about 42% to 64%.

Also, at the command line, using top, immediately after each stutter a new process appears briefly: kslowdxxx. A new process appears for each stutter, so about every 10 seconds.

I almost hate to complicate this, but for about 5% of cold boots the above behavior does not occur, and sound plays correctly in all apllications. I have attached an apport-bug --file-bug report for an instance of this rare situation: apport_good.txt. Perhaps it will help shed some light.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: alsa-base 1.0.23+dfsg-1ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.33-generic 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic i686
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: reidi 1401 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: reidi 1401 F...m pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'I82801DBICH4'/'Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with STAC9750,51 at irq 11'
   Mixer name : 'SigmaTel STAC9750,51'
   Components : 'AC97a:83847650'
   Controls : 31
   Simple ctrls : 21
Date: Mon Oct 11 14:29:52 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release Candidate i386 (20100928)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SelectedCard: 0 I82801DBICH4 ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
SpeakerTestAlsaStderr:
 W r i t e e r r o r : - 3 2 , B r o k e n p i p e
  W r i t e e r r o r : - 3 2 , B r o k e n p i p e
Symptom: audio
Title: [ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4] Playback problem
dmi.bios.date: 11/01/2004
dmi.bios.vendor: FUJITSU // Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
dmi.bios.version: Version 1.13
dmi.board.name: FJNB182
dmi.board.vendor: FUJITSU
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASS0F1A88B112000
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnFUJITSU//PhoenixTechnologiesLtd.:bvrVersion1.13:bd11/01/2004:svnFUJITSU:pnLifeBookSSeries:pvr:rvnFUJITSU:rnFJNB182:rvr:cvnASS0F1A88B112000:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.name: LifeBook S Series
dmi.sys.vendor: FUJITSU

[reidi (ian-reid)]

Maybe kslowd is a red herring. At any rate the processes kslowd000 and kslowd001 are persistent and alternately rise to the top of "top" every 10 seconds or so whether a sound application is running or not.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Those are kernel threads; see dmesg for more information.

You might need tsched=0 in /etc/pulse/default.pa.

[reidi (ian-reid)]

Editing default.pa as below did not solve the problem.

load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0 Did NOT work.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Please revert that change and use the latest linux-alsa-driver-modules
daily build.

[Andrey Yurovsky (andrey.yurovsky)]

Daniel, it's still present in the latest from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/InstallingLinuxAlsaDriverModules

same sound card on a ThinkPad X40. With 10.04 audio was fine, with 10.10 I get lots of stutter making listening to music quite frustrating.

[Kent Squires (ksquires)]

for the record, I have the exact same issue too. I've tried the suggested fixes above and they did not work.

[Kent Squires (ksquires)]

doing some other googles, and looking at reidi's comment on kslowdXXX, it appears that may be the culprit. Others seem to have other OS issues (mouse lag, etc) when kslowdXXX kicks in and spikes.

[reidi (ian-reid)]

Adding the tsched=0 made the situation noticeably worse. Instead of a single stutter I get a rapid 4 or 5 stutters. Change reverted.

[reidi (ian-reid)]

- Applying the latest linux-alsa-driver-modules daily build 2.6.35.22.201010121600 made no difference whatsoever.

- Applying the latest updates recommended by Update Manager, including kernel 2.6.35-22 #34 and a bunch of pulseaudio updates made no difference whatsoever.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Thanks. Can you reproduce this symptom using 10.04's kernel? If so,
can you use the daily build of linux-alsa-driver-modules from the
ubuntu-audio-dev ppa and reproduce it (also using 10.10's kernel)?

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

This looks like a kernel (external to the sound driver) regression, moving as appropriate.

[reidi (ian-reid)]

For the record, there were no sound problems using Ubuntu 10.04.

[Kent Squires (ksquires)]

Same as Reidi - no issues at all under 10.04

[msm120 (msm120)]

Same as Reidi - no issues at all under 9.10.

[Andrea Amoroso (heiko81)]

I have the same problem with the audio in Ubuntu 10.10..I didn't try the audio with Ubuntu 10.04 because I had the Intel i8 video card and it was discouraged to install Lucid if the computer had that video card..so I tried Ubuntu 10.10 from the alpha3 and the audio worked until a month ago..don't know why, I just updated every day Ubuntu..hope you solve it asap..thanks..

[Andrea Amoroso (heiko81)]

I have an Hp Pavilion dv1055ea with Ubuntu 10.10..the problem appears every 20 seconds or so, when playing music, videos, youtube, banshee, rythmbox, totem, mplayer..the kernel is 2.6.35.22.23

[Mircea Moldovan (mirceamld)]

same here: HP/compaq NX9020
no problem until now (ubuntu/xubuntu 10.10)

[reidi (ian-reid)]

I was able to work around this by installing the "Natty" kernel 2.6.36-020636-generic #201010210905. This appears to have eliminated the kslowdxxx problem and the audio hiccupping. [Off-topic: It has also broken the ndiswrapper wireless functionality, but resolved a problem where the normal b43 wireless would not stay connected for more than a minute or two, so I'll call that a net gain.]

Of course now I have a "broken" distribution, or at least one that will not update properly if I understand correctly. I haven't found any other problems yet.

[Mircea Moldovan (mirceamld)]

I fixed it following https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/662946/comments/20

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/Mavericki8xxStatus
 Manually enabling the Intel driver
 To enable the Intel driver you need to create a file called /etc/X11/xorg.conf containing the following:

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Configured Video Device"
        Driver "intel"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Default Screen"
        Monitor "Configured Monitor"
        Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/Lucidi8xxFreezes#GTT%20Incoherency%20Patch
 Install the 855gm PPA and the patched kernel modules
 https://launchpad.net/~glasen/+archive/855gm-fix

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:glasen/855gm-fix
 sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install dkms 855gm-fix-dkms

[Daniel Kulesz (kuleszdl)]

I am also affected, running 10.10 on a Thinkpad X40, also with i855GM. Sound playback is interrupted every 5-10 seconds and the mouse cursor freezes for a moment. This is really horrible when you try to make a softphone call.

I tried Glasen's PPA back in 10.04, but it did not resolve the various video crashes I had back then. I will try to install the suggested upgrade to the Natty kernel as you proposed, reidi.

[Daniel Kulesz (kuleszdl)]

I can confirm the fix proposed in #20: After installing the "Natty" kernel 2.6.36-020636-generic #201010210905, the stottering is gone.

[reidi (ian-reid)]

I removed the 2.6.36 kernel, reverted to 2.6.35-22 and installed the recent update to the 2.6.35 kernel:
Linux [my_hostname] 2.6.35-23-generic #41-Ubuntu SMP Wed Nov 24 10:18:49 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux.

This kernel update, and/or perhaps some other recent Meerkat updates, has resolved the audio playback issue, as well as the problem with the Broadcom 4318 wireless connection.

[reidi (ian-reid)]

I should clarify - audio playback quality now seems to be fine. I am still getting the kslowdxxx processes every 10 seconds or so, but they don't appear to significantly stall the system, or affect audio playback.

[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 development release http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ . 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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