FM801 sound chips doesn't play nice songs

Bug #463685 reported by psl
14
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
alsa-driver (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

U9.10, i386.

FM801 chips, in PCI slot. Doesn't play nice sounds, hear problems, like gaps in the test tone. Missed interrupt? Lost buffer? Bad timer?

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
CheckboxCommand: gst_pipeline_test -t 2 'audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink'
CheckboxData:
 USB audio is OK.
 FM801 audio is not OK, I hear gaps in the tone.
CheckboxDescription:
 Click the Test button to play a sound on the automatically detected playback device.

 Do you hear a sound?
CheckboxTest: playback_auto
Date: Thu Oct 29 21:04:26 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: python-gst0.10 0.10.17-1
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: gst0.10-python
Tags: checkbox-bug
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
---
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: FM801AU [ForteMedia FM801-AU], device 0: FM801 [FM801]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC2: psl 1647 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: psl 1647 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'FM801AU'/'ForteMedia FM801-AU at 0xe000, irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'SigmaTel STAC9704'
   Components : 'AC97a:83847605'
   Controls : 44
   Simple ctrls : 29
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'UART'/'MPU-401 UART at 0x330, irq 10'
   Mixer name : ''
   Components : ''
   Controls : 0
   Simple ctrls : 0
Card1.Amixer.values:

Card2.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:2 'SAA7134'/'saa7133[0] at 0xe7006000 irq 18'
   Mixer name : 'SAA7134 Mixer'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 6
   Simple ctrls : 3
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.22.1+dfsg-0ubuntu3
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.38-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Tags: lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic i686
UserGroups:

dmi.bios.date: 11/25/2002
dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 6.00 PG
dmi.board.name: SiS-745
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvr6.00PG:bd11/25/2002:svn:pn:pvr:rvn:rnSiS-745:rvr:cvn:ct3:cvr:

Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote :
Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote :

Retested in Ubuntu 10.04 i386 beta. HW is still broken. Audio buffers are played in random order or lost; difficult to say.I hear sound but it is strange.

Song of length 2:53 played in 1:28, this points to the buffer lost. I cannot hear shift in frequency.

Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote :

I created several audio files:

2646710 2010-03-27 22:05 test26.wav
2616876 2010-03-27 22:15 test26_u1004.wav
3885100 2010-03-28 20:20 test26_u0910.wav
5648428 2010-03-27 22:28 test26_u0804.wav
5685324 2010-03-28 18:29 test26_vl060.wav
5546060 2010-03-28 18:36 test26_win_hp.wav
5967948 2010-03-28 19:44 test26_win2k.wav

test26.wav is audio file created in Audacity; it has length 30s and contains silence, sine 440Hz and chirp from 220Hz to 8800Hz.
I played this file in several OS and recorded audio at different PC. u0804, u0910 and u1004 are U10.04 (OK) U09.10 (very bad) and U10.04 (bad), win2k is sound played under Win2k. vl060 is Vector Linux 6.0. win_hp is played under windows but different HW with different sound card; only for a reference.
U8.04 plays the best sound, even better than W2k (difference is visible in audio analyser, like Audacity). Sample from U10.04 clearly demonstrates that some buffers are lost.

Revision history for this message
Pedro Villavicencio (pedro) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We need some more information from you before we can start working on this bug.

Please include the information requested from the "Reporting Sound Bugs" section of https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSoundProblems as separate attachments.

If you are using Jaunty or later this information can be gathered for you automatically using the command apport-collect -p alsa-base 463685

Changed in gst0.10-python (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote :

First, I upgraded my system from U9.10 to U10.04
Second, problem with sound are not fixed in U10.04

$ uname -r
2.6.32-23-generic

$ sudo fuser -v /dev/dsp* /dev/snd/* /dev/seq*
                     USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0: psl 1661 F.... pulseaudio
/dev/snd/controlC2: psl 1661 F.... pulseaudio

$ find /proc/asound/card* -type f | grep codec
/proc/asound/card0/codec97#0/ac97#0-0+regs
/proc/asound/card0/codec97#0/ac97#0-0

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [FM801AU ]: FM801 - ForteMedia FM801-AU
                      ForteMedia FM801-AU at 0xe000, irq 16
 1 [UART ]: MPU-401 UART - MPU-401 UART
                      MPU-401 UART at 0x330, irq 10
 2 [SAA7134 ]: SAA7134 - SAA7134
                      saa7133[0] at 0xe7006000 irq 18

affects: gst0.10-python (Ubuntu) → alsa-driver (Ubuntu)
Changed in alsa-driver (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → New
Revision history for this message
Luke Yelavich (themuso) wrote : Re: [Bug 463685] [NEW] FM801 sound chips doesn't play nice songs

Please run the following command in a terminal: apport-collect -p alsa-base 463685

Thanks

 affects ubuntu/alsa-driver
 status incomplete

Luke Yelavich (themuso)
Changed in alsa-driver (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote : AlsaDevices.txt

apport information

tags: added: apport-collected
description: updated
Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote : ArecordDevices.txt

apport information

Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote : BootDmesg.txt

apport information

Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote : Card0.Amixer.values.txt

apport information

Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote : Card0.Codecs.codec97.0.ac97.0.0.txt

apport information

Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote : Card0.Codecs.codec97.0.ac97.0.0.regs.txt

apport information

Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote : Card2.Amixer.values.txt

apport information

Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote : CurrentDmesg.txt

apport information

Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote : Dependencies.txt

apport information

Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote : PciMultimedia.txt

apport information

Revision history for this message
psl (slansky) wrote : ProcCpuinfo.txt

apport information

psl (slansky)
Changed in alsa-driver (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → New
Revision history for this message
Hrotkó Gábor (roti-al) wrote :

This bug also affects me with 12.04. How can I send my config?

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in alsa-driver (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Raymond (superquad-vortex2) wrote :

does it help if you change the periods_min from 1 to 2 if it has two buffers ?

#define FM801_PLY_BUF1 0x0c /* Playback Bufer I */
#define FM801_PLY_BUF2 0x10 /* Playback Buffer II */

static struct snd_pcm_hardware snd_fm801_playback =
{
 .info = (SNDRV_PCM_INFO_MMAP | SNDRV_PCM_INFO_INTERLEAVED |
     SNDRV_PCM_INFO_BLOCK_TRANSFER |
     SNDRV_PCM_INFO_PAUSE | SNDRV_PCM_INFO_RESUME |
     SNDRV_PCM_INFO_MMAP_VALID),
 .formats = SNDRV_PCM_FMTBIT_U8 | SNDRV_PCM_FMTBIT_S16_LE,
 .rates = SNDRV_PCM_RATE_KNOT | SNDRV_PCM_RATE_8000_48000,
 .rate_min = 5500,
 .rate_max = 48000,
 .channels_min = 1,
 .channels_max = 2,
 .buffer_bytes_max = (128*1024),
 .period_bytes_min = 64,
 .period_bytes_max = (128*1024),
 .periods_min = 1,
 .periods_max = 1024,
 .fifo_size = 0,
};

Revision history for this message
Raymond (superquad-vortex2) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Fisher (fisher-moraes) wrote :

WOW!!
This bug was reported in 2009, and almost 10 years later we have no solution!!
It's getting very difficult to find a cheap PCI sound card that works fine with Ubuntu or any other Linux distribution.
Would a SoundBlaster Live work fine??
Talk about market reserve!!!

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