Breaks in audio

[Ralf Kistner]

Approximately every minute, my audio breaks up briefly (for about half a second). This happens with any application, not just my music player. When using PulseAudio, the last piece of audio is repeated for about half a second. When using ALSA directly (uninstalled pulseaudio and installed alsa-oss), it is just silent for about half a second.

I tried the workaround described on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/PositionReporting with both position_fix=1 and position_fix=2, but it made no difference.

I had this issue since Ubuntu 12.04.

This is specifically with my Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller card, not with my nvidia card (I only have analogue headphones, so I can't test the digital output).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-17.28-generic 3.5.5
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-17-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu6
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ralf 7550 F.... amarok
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: ralf 7550 F...m amarok
 /dev/snd/timer: ralf 7550 f.... amarok
Date: Tue Nov 6 11:53:48 2012
InstallationDate: Installed on 2011-04-29 (556 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
MarkForUpload: True
PackageArchitecture: all
PulseList: Error: command ['pacmd', 'list'] failed with exit code 1: No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2012-10-23 (13 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 02/26/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 0603
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: P6T WS PRO
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr0603:bd02/26/2009:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnP6TWSPRO:rvrRev1.xx:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer
mtime.conffile..etc.modprobe.d.alsa.base.conf: 2012-11-06T11:49:02.845526

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

how about align_buffer_size=Y or power_save_controller=N

Module: snd_hda_intel
 align_buffer_size : -1
 bdl_pos_adj : 1,32,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1
 beep_mode : 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
 enable : Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y
 enable_msi : -1
 id : (null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null)
 index : -1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1
 model : (null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null)
 patch : (null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null)
 position_fix : 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
 power_save : 0
 power_save_controller : Y
 probe_mask : -1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1
 probe_only : 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
 single_cmd : N
 snoop : Y

    6.506352] init: mytestapp-test-1 main process (997) terminated with status 1
[ 6.506370] init: mytestapp-test-1 main process ended, respawning
[ 6.567158] init: mytestapp-test-1 main process (1009) terminated with status 1
[ 6.567177] init: mytestapp-test-1 main process ended, respawning
[ 6.588485] init: mytestapp-test-1 main process (1015) terminated with status 1
[ 6.588508] init: mytestapp-test-1 respawning too fast, stopped
[ 6.704590] EXT4-fs (sda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: user_xattr
[ 6.739123] hda_codec: AD1989B: BIOS auto-probing.
[ 6.743414] hda_intel: Disabling MSI
[ 6.743428] hda-intel: 0000:04:00.1: Handle VGA-switcheroo audio client

848.757436] dconf-service[7077] trap int3 ip:7ff50a6d8c7f sp:7fff36b8f220 error:0
[ 848.761832] dconf-service[7079] trap int3 ip:7fc900b59c7f sp:7fffb8c876f0 error:0
[ 848.765977] dconf-service[7081] trap int3 ip:7f0bcfbfdc7f sp:7fff9b9a3310 error:0
[ 903.140741] type=1701 audit(1352187752.149:37): auid=4294967295 uid=1000 gid=1000 ses=4294967295 pid=7778 comm="chrome" reason="seccomp" sig=0 syscall=39 compat=0 ip=0x7fe158852ed9 code=0x50000
[ 903.926039] type=1701 audit(1352187752.933:38): auid=4294967295 uid=1000 gid=1000 ses=4294967295 pid=7870 comm="chrome" reason="seccomp" sig=0 syscall=39 compat=0 ip=0x7f8ce84ceed9 code=0x50000
[ 946.485167] type=1701 audit(1352187795.509:39): auid=4294967295 uid=1000 gid=1000 ses=4294967295 pid=8341 comm="chrome" reason="seccomp" sig=0 syscall=2 compat=0 ip=0x7fe1588496b0 code=0x50000

[Ralf Kistner (ralf-kistner)]

I tried both those options, with no difference.

It could also be that my entire system is freezing for a short duration, and not just the sound. How can I verify this? dmesg doesn't snow anything when it happens, are there any other logs I can check/enable?

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

my ich8 ad1988 can suspend and resume in fedora 10 for several years but it cannot suspend resume after a fresh install of ubuntu 12.04

how did you remove pulseaudio ?

is the removal of pulseaudio officially supported by ubuntu 12.10 ?

did you loss the sound preference ?

are you using xfce , unity , gnome ?

[Ralf Kistner (ralf-kistner)]

I removed pulseaudio with `sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio; sudo apt-get install alsa-oss gnome-alsamixer`. The removal of pulseaudio is not officially supported by Ubuntu (it also removes the ubuntu-desktop package). It did remove the sound preferences as well, which is why I had to install gnome-alsamixer. For this reason I would not recommend removing pulseaudio for anything other than for debugging sound issues.

I'm currently using Gnome Shell, but I had the exact same issue in Unity and Unity 2D which I've used in the past.

[Ralf Kistner (ralf-kistner)]

I've now installed OSS4 on my system (with a lot of trouble), and it doesn't have this issue. Therefore it would seem like this is a bug somewhere in ALSA, but I have no idea how to debug it further. Any suggestions?

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

it seem ossv4 only have analog output And input
and did not have digital output or digit input

you can try
1) auto probe
   mute this switch since only ad1989b have two digital output node 0x02 and 0x0b

(those deluxe motherboards have coaxial and optical at rear panel and spdif out internal connetor

Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
  Capabilities:pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]

2) model=6stack
this disable the digital input and output

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound.git;a=commit;h=ae24c3191ba2ab03ec6b4be323e730e00404b4b6

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for alsa-driver (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]