[Asus P8P67, Realtek ALC892, playback] Underruns, dropouts or crackling sound

[John]

It's started when I updated Ubuntu to 12.04.
For a while, the sound is good. Then it turns into a crackling noise. After killing pulseaudio and starting it again, the sound is good again for a while.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:1.1-0ubuntu15
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.37-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: john 3510 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: john 3510 F...m pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xfb500000 irq 68'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC892'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0892,10438410,00100302'
   Controls : 44
   Simple ctrls : 21
Date: Mon May 21 23:08:32 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:PCH successful
Symptom_Card: Встроенное аудио - HDA Intel PCH
Symptom_PulsePlaybackTest: PulseAudio playback test failed
Symptom_Type: Underruns, dropouts, or "crackling" sound
Title: [HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH, playback] Underruns, dropouts or crackling sound
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-04-27 (24 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 03/10/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1503
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: P8P67
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.:bvr1503:bd03/10/2011:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnP8P67:rvrRev1.xx:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[talent03 (talent03)]

I believe I am affected by this bug. I am running Ubuntu 12.04 64bit. Intel 82801h audio controller and I have many dropouts. Most recently, I encountered my problem running games on Wine. After about 10 minutes the audio starts crackling and eventually drops out. If I kill pulseaudio and start it again the problem goes away. This is repeatable every time.

If I change this line in default.pa, "load-module module-udev-detect" to "load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0" I no longer get the crackling sound, but the sound eventually drops out anyway as it would have before.

I will continue to try different settings to figure this out, but it would be nice if someone who knew more would get involved to get this resolved.

[John (vanuan)]

I removed my ~/.pulse folder and everything started working again. Broken pulse folder is attached

[_dan_ (dan-void)]

Same here, on ASRock B75 Pro3.
Not an Asus issue.

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1028927#p1028927

does disble auto mute help or not ?

[knet (maggaknet)]

No, disabling auto mute does not help for me. Very annoying bug and still present (ubuntu 13.10).

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

post the pulseaudio verbose log

do your computer chassis have HDA front audio panel or AC97 front audio panel ?

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-015851.htm

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PulseAudio/Log

https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound.git/plain/Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio.txt

- jack_detect (bool): specify whether the jack detection is available
  at all on this machine; default true
- trigger_sense (bool): indicates that the jack detection needs the
  explicit call of AC_VERB_SET_PIN_SENSE verb

you can try specify hint by dynamic reconfiguration or early patching

trigger_sense = false

or

jack_detect = false

[knet (maggaknet)]

Thank you very much for your quick response Raymond,

Yes, i do have a HDA audio front panel. Jack detection must be true because automute is working. Where do i find the trigger_sense option?

I made an pulseaudio log as u told, headphones were not plugged in, bug occured at about 5 seconds(!) at about 10 i stopped.
Changing volume does also makes the sound crash often, for some volume levels sound is okay, for some its totally quirky. Just random.

Log is pretty long altough. Pulseaudio verbose log: http://pastebin.com/vn4i59rh

My Mainboard is an ASROCK Z77 Pro3 http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Pro3/index.de.asp

In an unnamed OS from a very big company Front and Backpanels are seen as independent soundcards but i gave up on that. Would be satisfied already if i could hear music without having to call pkill pulseaudio every 2 tracks.

[knet (maggaknet)]

p.s. I also tried the Realtek HD audio driver on this formerly. Only result is my nvidia-hdmi output isnt found anymore. Crackling beeping noisy sound still appears.

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

you can use device 2 alt analog for independent headphone when you specify hint

indep_hp = true

indep_hp (bool): provide the independent headphone PCM stream and
the corresponding mixer control, if available

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-034206.htm

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

do it happen when you

1) select stereo instead of 5.1 profile
2) use 5.1 profile and module_udev_detect ignore_db=yes

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: hwbuf_unused=12

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: setting avail_min=5166

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Requesting rewind due to latency change.

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Requested volume: 0: 80% 1: 80% 2: 80% 3: 80% 4: 80% 5: 80%

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: in dB: 0: -5.81 dB 1: -5.81 dB 2: -5.81 dB 3: -5.81 dB 4: -5.81 dB 5: -5.81 dB

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Got hardware volume: 0: 80% 1: 80% 2: 80% 3: 80% 4: 83% 5: 83%

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: in dB: 0: -5.80 dB 1: -5.80 dB 2: -5.80 dB 3: -5.80 dB 4: -5.00 dB 5: -5.00 dB

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Calculated software volume: 0: 100% 1: 100% 2: 100% 3: 100% 4: 97% 5: 97% (accurate-enough=no)

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: in dB: 0: -0.01 dB 1: -0.01 dB 2: -0.01 dB 3: -0.01 dB 4: -0.81 dB 5: -0.81 dB

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink.c: Volume going up to 53004 at 28081594830

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink.c: Next volume change in 86320 usec

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Requested to rewind 65520 bytes.

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Limited to 45728 bytes.

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: before: 3810

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: after: 3810

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Rewound 45720 bytes.

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink.c: Processing rewind...

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink.c: latency = 0

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink.c: Next volume change in 1 usec

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink-input.c: Have to rewind 45720 bytes on render memblockq.

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] source.c: Processing rewind...

( 2.017| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink.c: Volume change to 53004 at 28081508571 was written 49 usec late

( 2.036| 0.019) D: [alsa-sink] protocol-native.c: Requesting rewind due to end of underrun.

( 2.036| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Requested to rewind 65520 bytes.

( 2.036| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Limited to 55076 bytes.

( 2.036| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: before: 4589

( 2.036| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: after: 4589

( 2.036| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] alsa-sink.c: Rewound 55068 bytes.

( 2.036| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink.c: Processing rewind...

( 2.036| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink.c: latency = 30

( 2.036| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] sink-input.c: Have to rewind 55068 bytes on render memblockq.

( 2.036| 0.000) D: [alsa-sink] source.c: Processing rewind...

( 5.764| 3.728) I: [pulseaudio] module-suspend-on-idle.c: Source alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo idle for too long, suspending ...

( 5.764| 0.000) D: [pulseaudio] source.c: Suspend cause of source alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo is 0x0004, suspending

( 5.764| 0.000) I: [alsa-source] alsa-source.c:...

[knet (maggaknet)]

I tested it for some while now, you are right. When i set speaker configuration to stereo instead of 5.1 the error does not appear.
I tried adding ignore_db=yes to module_udev_detect options in /etc/pulse/default.pa but Pulsaudio refused to start, did i put it in the right location? my knowledge of pa is limited, I dont know what to do with the hints also.
Would be nice if you could explain that a little :)

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

Early Patching
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When CONFIG_SND_HDA_PATCH_LOADER=y is set, you can pass a "patch" as a
firmware file for modifying the HD-audio setup before initializing the
codec. This can work basically like the reconfiguration via sysfs in
the above, but it does it before the first codec configuration.

A patch file is a plain text file which looks like below:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
  [codec]
  0x12345678 0xabcd1234 2

  [model]
  auto

  [pincfg]
  0x12 0x411111f0

  [verb]
  0x20 0x500 0x03
  0x20 0x400 0xff

  [hint]
  jack_detect = no
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The file needs to have a line `[codec]`. The next line should contain
three numbers indicating the codec vendor-id (0x12345678 in the
example), the codec subsystem-id (0xabcd1234) and the address (2) of
the codec. The rest patch entries are applied to this specified codec
until another codec entry is given. Passing 0 or a negative number to
the first or the second value will make the check of the corresponding
field be skipped. It'll be useful for really broken devices that don't
initialize SSID properly.

The `[model]` line allows to change the model name of the each codec.
In the example above, it will be changed to model=auto.
Note that this overrides the module option.

After the `[pincfg]` line, the contents are parsed as the initial
default pin-configurations just like `user_pin_configs` sysfs above.
The values can be shown in user_pin_configs sysfs file, too.

Similarly, the lines after `[verb]` are parsed as `init_verbs`
sysfs entries, and the lines after `[hint]` are parsed as `hints`
sysfs entries, respectively.

Another example to override the codec vendor id from 0x12345678 to
0xdeadbeef is like below:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
  [codec]
  0x12345678 0xabcd1234 2

  [vendor_id]
  0xdeadbeef
------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the similar way, you can override the codec subsystem_id via
`[subsystem_id]`, the revision id via `[revision_id]` line.
Also, the codec chip name can be rewritten via `[chip_name]` line.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
  [codec]
  0x12345678 0xabcd1234 2

  [subsystem_id]
  0xffff1111

  [revision_id]
  0x10

  [chip_name]
  My-own NEWS-0002
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The hd-audio driver reads the file via request_firmware(). Thus,
a patch file has to be located on the appropriate firmware path,
typically, /lib/firmware. For example, when you pass the option
`patch=hda-init.fw`, the file /lib/firmware/hda-init.fw must be
present.

The patch module option is specific to each card instance, and you
need to give one file name for each instance, separated by commas.
For example, if you have two cards, one for an on-board analog and one
for an HDMI video board, you may pass patch option like below:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
    options snd-hda-intel patch=on-board-patch,hdmi-patch
------------------------------------------------...

[knet (maggaknet)]

Yes i have seen that everywhere, i read it in other posts you answered too but cant make any sense of it. Sorry.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) reached end-of-life on April 28, 2017.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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