pulseaudio not working in Virtualbox

[BertN45]

I run my "work" VMs and in Xubuntu pulse audio often does not start. In this dump I tried to start music through Firefox and through my media player quodlibet and none of the audio starts.

See attachment with the pulseaudio volume control and quodlibet stuck on time 0:00 like Firefox.

I do not have the problem with plain Ubuntu, Ubuntu Mate nor with Ubuntu Studio.

The problem is annoying, because I use Xubuntu for office and communication like Email and the WhatsApp/Firefox/ICE combination and with this bug WhatsApp is useless.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:13.99.1-1ubuntu3.3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-40.44-generic 5.4.44
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-40-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.3
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: bertadmin 1490 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: bertadmin 1490 F...m pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: bertadmin 1490 F...m pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/timer: bertadmin 1490 f.... pulseaudio
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Sun Jul 5 11:33:48 2020
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-03-11 (847 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Alpha amd64 (20180310)
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-03-04 (122 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/01/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: innotek GmbH
dmi.bios.version: VirtualBox
dmi.board.name: VirtualBox
dmi.board.vendor: Oracle Corporation
dmi.board.version: 1.2
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: Oracle Corporation
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvninnotekGmbH:bvrVirtualBox:bd12/01/2006:svninnotekGmbH:pnVirtualBox:pvr1.2:rvnOracleCorporation:rnVirtualBox:rvr1.2:cvnOracleCorporation:ct1:cvr:
dmi.product.family: Virtual Machine
dmi.product.name: VirtualBox
dmi.product.version: 1.2
dmi.sys.vendor: innotek GmbH
---
ProblemType: Bug
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.3
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: bertadmin 1490 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: bertadmin 1490 F...m pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/timer: bertadmin 1490 f.... pulseaudio
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
HibernationDevice: RESUME=e84fd8cd-175c-4d3b-82c1-e02af2714d71
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-03-11 (848 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Alpha amd64 (20180310)
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 enp0s3 no wireless extensions.
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 80ee:0021 VirtualBox USB Tablet
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Lsusb-t:
 /: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/6p, 5000M
 /: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/8p, 480M
     |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
MachineType: innotek GmbH VirtualBox
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcFB: 0 svgadrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-40-generic root=UUID=22835ac6-a7b5-4601-bd4b-a6c98e4df3fb ro quiet splash zwap.enabled=1 zswap.compressor=lz4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-40.44-generic 5.4.44
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-5.4.0-40-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-5.4.0-40-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.187.1
RfKill:

Tags: focal
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-40-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-03-04 (123 days ago)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo vboxsf
_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 12/01/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: innotek GmbH
dmi.bios.version: VirtualBox
dmi.board.name: VirtualBox
dmi.board.vendor: Oracle Corporation
dmi.board.version: 1.2
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: Oracle Corporation
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvninnotekGmbH:bvrVirtualBox:bd12/01/2006:svninnotekGmbH:pnVirtualBox:pvr1.2:rvnOracleCorporation:rnVirtualBox:rvr1.2:cvnOracleCorporation:ct1:cvr:
dmi.product.family: Virtual Machine
dmi.product.name: VirtualBox
dmi.product.version: 1.2
dmi.sys.vendor: innotek GmbH

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

The attached info shows PulseAudio was running when you reported the bug:

!!Sound Servers on this system
!!----------------------------

Pulseaudio:
      Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/pulseaudio)
      Running - Yes

Are you sure the problem is PulseAudio not running (the process should be named 'pulseaudio')? If so then please check for any crash files in /var/crash

If you don't find any relevant crash files then please wait until the problem happens again and then run:

  journalctl -b0 > journal.txt

and attach the resulting text file here.

[BertN45 (lammert-nijhof)]

Pulseaudio was running, but the music did not start. It stayed in the initial position. I have the impression that Firefox creates the problem. The music in quodlibet played. I stopped it and I started Firefox to play a music video from youtube, it did not play. Afterwards quodlibet stopped playing music also.

Remember I only have the problem with Xubuntu and with none of the other Ubuntu flavors.

I attached the journal.txt file.

[BertN45 (lammert-nijhof)]

Note that I run Firefox twice in two different windows. One window is for the WhatsApp website, the other windows is for youtube. This is the ONLY system, where I use two windows of Firefox both potentially using pulseaudio. The WhatsApp windows has used or tried to use pulseaudio in the past.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

The main reason why PulseAudio exists is so that multiple apps can play sounds simultaneously, without having to stop and restart each app to get access to the audio hardware in turn. So I don't think having two windows open should be a problem.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

I can see a few issues in the log from your VM:

1. Buggy audio in the VM's kernel driver (says pulseaudio):

jul 05 11:05:21 VM-Xubuntu-2004 pulseaudio[1406]: ALSA woke us up to write new data to the device, but there was actually nothing to write.
jul 05 11:05:21 VM-Xubuntu-2004 pulseaudio[1406]: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver 'snd_hda_intel'. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
jul 05 11:05:21 VM-Xubuntu-2004 pulseaudio[1406]: We were woken up with POLLOUT set -- however a subsequent snd_pcm_avail() returned 0 or another value < min_avail.
jul 05 11:05:21 VM-Xubuntu-2004 pulseaudio[1406]: Disabling timer-based scheduling because running inside a VM.

2. More problems with the VM's kernel driver:

jul 05 11:05:28 VM-Xubuntu-2004 pulseaudio[1406]: Unable to set sw params: Permission denied
jul 05 11:05:28 VM-Xubuntu-2004 pulseaudio[1406]: Failed to set software parameters: Permission denied
jul 05 11:05:28 VM-Xubuntu-2004 pulseaudio[1406]: Error opening PCM device front:0: No such file or directory
jul 05 11:05:28 VM-Xubuntu-2004 systemd[1399]: pulseaudio.service: Succeeded.

3. A couple of kernel crashes apparently relating to running out of memory in the VM.

So I suggest:

  * Giving the VM more memory.
  * Running fewer apps in the VM.
  * Configuring the VM with a different type of virtual audio device (if you can).

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. While running an Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline or third-party kernel) please enter the following command in a terminal window:

apport-collect 1886330

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

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

[BertN45 (lammert-nijhof)]

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[BertN45 (lammert-nijhof)]

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[BertN45 (lammert-nijhof)]

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[BertN45 (lammert-nijhof)]

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[BertN45 (lammert-nijhof)]

Normally I run the VM with Transmission, Firefox/WhatsAPP and Evolution. Sometimes I add a second Firefox window or LibreOffice Calc, but that's all. I never noticed a crash and I have no problems with responsiveness, despite a relative large SWAP usage, since the VM runs on top of ZFS (lz4 compressed, L1ARC = 3 GB) on a nvme-SSD (3400/2300 MB/s). I will look somewhat more in detail to SWAP usage and adapt memory and/or SWAP size if needed.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

You can see the memory usage by running:

  free -h

[BertN45 (lammert-nijhof)]

Dank U, but I prefer Conky, because it displays each 2 seconds; RAM
size; SWAP size and SWAP throughput :)

On Tue, 2020-07-07 at 01:48 +0000, Daniel van Vugt wrote:
> You can see the memory usage by running:
>
> free -h
>