[EMU10K1X - Dell Sound Blaster Live!] ALSA test tone not correctly played back.Its emits "pa_stream_writable_size() failed: Connection terminated" error whenever any song is played.The problem is with all application.

[Ankit Kumar Singh]

It reports "pa_stream_writable_size() failed: Connection terminated" error whenever any song is played.The problem is with all applications.This was not there in lucid and also this was a fresh install.

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
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Live [Dell Sound Blaster Live!], device 0: emu10k1x [EMU10K1X Front]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ankit 8207 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: ankit 8207 F...m pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Live'/'Dell Sound Blaster Live! at 0xb000 irq 17'
   Mixer name : 'Analog Devices AD1881A'
   Components : 'AC97a:41445348'
   Controls : 38
   Simple ctrls : 22
Date: Tue Oct 12 10:12:58 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SelectedCard: 0 Live EMU10K1X - Dell Sound Blaster Live!
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Title: [EMU10K1X - Dell Sound Blaster Live!] ALSA test tone not correctly played back
dmi.bios.date: 01/21/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
dmi.bios.version: F3
dmi.board.name: GA-73VM-S2
dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.board.version: x.x
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvrF3:bd01/21/2008:svnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:pnGA-73VM-S2:pvr:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rnGA-73VM-S2:rvrx.x:cvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: GA-73VM-S2
dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.

[Book 'em Dano (heymrdjd)]

Thanks for reporting this bug and any supporting documentation. Since this bug has enough information provided for a developer to begin work, I'm going to mark it as triaged and let them handle it from here. Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better!

[Ankit Kumar Singh (ankitsinghinf)]

Yes this is a bug and its related to the kernel.It has also affected fedora.Yesterday i had a kernel update in fedora and the sound became choppy(same as i got in maverick) .This put me into suspicion and i booted the pc into previous installed kernel and i am getting a perfect sound.Using this logic ,i removed the maverick kernel(that came default with it) and moved back to kernel 2.32.x.x and i had a good sound.Sorry for not providing enough information,but i am not that professional in linux.Here is the bug report that has been filed in redhat bugzilla: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=632883

[Ankit Kumar Singh (ankitsinghinf)]

Yes this is a bug related to kernel.I have fedora on my other computer and it has also been affected by this bug.Yesterday i did a kernel update in fedora from 2.6.32.x-x to 2.6.34.7-56 and there i got a sound and the error message as same as got in ubuntu 10.10.The sound was very choppy.To confirmed this i booted into the previous kernel(thanks god i did not removed it) and i got a perfect sound.Now using the same logic i installed the lucid kernel and i am getting a good sound in maverick.I don't know whom should i blame for this.If i were a linux pro i would have fixed this.Here is the bug report that was filed in redhat bugzilla:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=632883.

[Ankit Kumar Singh (ankitsinghinf)]

Sorry for two same comments i was disconnected,so i thought my message would not have been posted and all that thing :-)

[Krad Radio (kradradio)]

I have the same issue with sound blaster live value, which is probably identical to dell sound blaster live

Both thru analog and digital output. Perfect Sound in lucid :/

[Krad Radio (kradradio)]

I have a solution to this problem!

First, let me mention, I tried reverting to 2.6.32 w/ alsa 1.0.21a w/ no change and also using the 'crack of the day' ubuntu audio packages.

The key to the fix is in the difference between 1.0.21a and 1.0.23 tho. I noticed it because on another machine I have scripts I had to create to switch between 44/48/96 rates manually by updating pulse and alsa config files and restarting pulse. (because linux audio is so wonderfull! as long as you know exactly what you want and everything about everything... or are happy with everything being resampled to 48000 ;P)

Changing two things in the /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf file and then kicking alsa (restart alsa, altho im not sure what kick it really needs alsa-utils restart / alsa-utils reset, try whatever or reboot)

defaults.pcm.compat 0
defaults.pcm.minperiodtime 5000 # in us

remove those two things from that file and kick alsa and things will work again, digital and analog output both work again on my sblive value.

I did not test to see which one of them or both was the problem, I'll let someone else do that wonderful task.

I would like to note one odd thing that happened back in the lucid versions of alsa and persist till now with the sblive value..

It is best witnessed by using mplayer in the command line to play an audio file.

The audio will start to play, but the counter will be moved up by 2 seconds or so and then stuck, then once that point is reached, it will continue on as normal! This can happen when using -ao pulse or -ao alsa w/ pulseaudio dead. wierd! But it works never the less! perhaps related to this new default minperoidtime ...

Thanks and Enjoy!

[Krad Radio (kradradio)]

Well, I may have been wrong about what fixed what exactly. Just to push the issue further, I added back those config options and rebooted and everything is still working.

I can only guess at this point, that it was enough of the alsa-utils reset / alsact store alsa-utils restart that kicked the cards settings back into the right place.

[Ankit Kumar Singh (ankitsinghinf)]

Well do you had audio skipping???I don't know why is this happening but i am just frustated.It is now occurring on every linux distribution.I am fedup of this.Linux worked out of the box on my pc for about two years and now it is troubling me with this nasty bug.I have given up due to lack of time and even removed maverick and have gone back to lucid and will stick to it till the bug is resolved.

[Klaids (eklaids-deactivatedaccount)]

oneman, your solution is not working for me

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.