When playing audio using audacious and pulseaudio backend there are skips caused by a sudden high cpu usage by atheros driver. tried to increase the buffer to 5000 ms on audacious no change, this is a minor anoyance otherwise wireless network works great
jaime@jaime-laptop:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
jaime@jaime-laptop:~$ pstree
init─┬─NetworkManager─┬─dhclient
│ └─{NetworkManager}
├─acpid
├─audacious───5*[{audacious}]
├─avahi-daemon───avahi-daemon
├─console-kit-dae───63*[{console-kit-dae}]
├─cron
├─cupsd
├─2*[dbus-daemon]
├─dbus-launch
├─dd
├─firefox───5*[{firefox}]
├─gam_server
├─gconfd-2
├─gdm───gdm─┬─Xorg
│ └─sh───xfce4-session─┬─Thunar───{Thunar}
│ ├─update-notifier
│ ├─xfce4-panel───xfce4-menu-plug
│ ├─xfdesktop─┬─pidgin
│ │ ├─xfce4-terminal─┬─bash───pstree
│ │ │ └─gnome-pty-helpe
│ │ └─{xfdesktop}
│ └─xfwm4
├─6*[getty]
├─gksu───synaptic
├─gnome-keyring-d
├─gnome-power-man
├─gnome-screensav
├─gtk-gnutella───gtk-gnutella
├─gvfs-fuse-daemo───3*[{gvfs-fuse-daemo}]
├─gvfs-gphoto2-vo
├─gvfs-hal-volume
├─gvfsd
├─hald───hald-runner─┬─hald-addon-acpi
│ ├─hald-addon-inpu
│ └─hald-addon-stor
├─klogd
├─nm-applet
├─nm-system-setti
├─pulseaudio─┬─gconf-helper
│ └─2*[{pulseaudio}]
├─ssh-agent
├─syslogd
├─system-tools-ba
├─trackerd───2*[{trackerd}]
├─udevd
├─wpa_supplicant
└─xfce-mcs-manage
important information.
my laptop connects to a wireless router over a password protected (authenticated) connection, I was checking the system log and noticed many backtraces from the kernel relating to the wireless driver, went to network mannager applet, edit connection, filled in the BSSID setting and check the box that says system setting, after this I open a couple of network aware applications (gtk-gnutella, bittorrent client) open a totem window start to listen stream radio, no skips, seems to me the wpa disosiation and reasociation was taking place too often causing the driver to spike the cpu ussage and therefore causing skips on the sound system.